Hello in Binary
"hello" in binary is 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
5 bytes, 40 bits, one 8-bit ASCII code per character.
The word “hello” in lowercase binary is:
01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
Five letters, five 8-bit bytes, forty digits in all. Each byte is one letter’s ASCII code written in base 2, in order: h, e, l, l, o. Note the third and fourth bytes are identical, which is your first decoding clue in any binary string: repeated bytes mean repeated letters.
This is probably the most-decoded word in binary, and not by accident. “Hello” is the traditional first message of computing (every programmer’s first program prints a greeting), so it became the standard classroom exercise, the default demo string, and the thing people type first into any converter. If a puzzle or a T-shirt contains exactly five bytes, it’s a decent bet you’re looking at this word.
Casing matters, though. The version above is all lowercase. Capitalized “Hello” starts with a different first byte, 01001000 instead of 01101000, and the famous string people paste from movies and forums is usually the capitalized one. Check the first byte before assuming.
The table below breaks the word down letter by letter. To go further, decode it yourself with the how to read binary method, compare the longer programmer’s version at hello world in binary, or browse more phrases at words in binary.
Byte by byte
| Character | Decimal | Binary |
|---|---|---|
| h | 104 | 01101000 |
| e | 101 | 01100101 |
| l | 108 | 01101100 |
| l | 108 | 01101100 |
| o | 111 | 01101111 |
The same phrase in hex and decimal
Binary is not the only way to write the bytes. In hexadecimal, "hello" is:
68 65 6C 6C 6F
And as decimal byte values:
104 101 108 108 111
More words in binary
Browse the full collection at words in binary, or convert any text to binary with the translator.
FAQ
What is hello in binary?
Lowercase “hello” is 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111. Each group of eight digits is one letter’s ASCII code in binary: h, then e, then the doubled l, then o. The capitalized form differs only in the first byte, since uppercase H has its own code, 32 below lowercase h.
How do you decode hello from binary?
Split the string into five groups of eight digits. Convert each group to its decimal value using place values, then look each value up in an ASCII table. The first byte works out to 104, which is lowercase h, and the rest follow the same way. Repeated bytes decode to repeated letters.
Why do the two middle bytes look the same?
Because “hello” has a double l. Identical letters always produce identical bytes, and spotting repeats is a genuinely useful decoding tactic: doubled bytes in an English message very often mean ll, ee, oo, or ss. Cryptographers have exploited exactly this kind of pattern for centuries.
Is hello in binary the same in ASCII and UTF-8?
Yes, byte for byte. UTF-8 was designed so the original 128 ASCII characters keep their exact codes and fit in single bytes. Since every letter in “hello” is plain ASCII, both encodings produce the same five bytes. Differences only appear with accented characters, other alphabets, or emoji.