Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number (code point) to every character in all languages. It includes 143,000+ characters covering 154 scripts, symbols, and Emoji. Unlike ASCII (128 characters), Unicode can represent text in any language, making it the foundation of modern text processing.

A code point is a unique number assigned to each Unicode character, written as U+XXXX in hexadecimal. For example, 'A' is U+0041, '你' is U+4F60, and '😀' is U+1F600. Code points range from U+0000 to U+10FFFF, providing space for over 1 million characters.

What's the difference between UTF-8 and UTF-16?

UTF-8 and UTF-16 are encoding schemes for Unicode. UTF-8 uses 1-4 bytes per character (ASCII uses 1 byte, most languages use 2-3, Emoji uses 4). UTF-16 uses 2 or 4 bytes. UTF-8 is the most common encoding for web and APIs because it's ASCII-compatible and space-efficient for Latin text. UTF-16 is used internally by JavaScript and Windows.

How do I use HTML entities?

HTML entities let you represent any Unicode character in HTML using its code point. For example, 😀 displays as 😀. Named entities like © (©) are more readable for common symbols. Use numeric entities (&#XXXX;) for any character, especially when your keyboard doesn't have the character or encoding issues might occur.

Why explore Unicode blocks?

Unicode blocks organize characters into logical groups (Latin, Greek, Chinese, Emoji, Math Symbols, etc.). Exploring blocks helps you: find special symbols for documents, discover Emoji, understand character ranges for validation, and learn about different writing systems. This tool shows common blocks with practical characters.

How do I find a specific character?

Use convert mode to analyze text containing your character. You'll see its code point, UTF-8/UTF-16 encoding, and HTML entity. You can also explore relevant blocks: Emoji in 'Emoticons', arrows in 'Arrows', math symbols in 'Mathematical Operators', or Chinese characters in 'CJK Unified Ideographs'.

Tools

Mode

Input Text

Output Format

Unicode Output

U+0048 U+0065 U+006C U+006C U+006F U+0020 U+4F60 U+597D U+0020 U+1F389

Unicode Converter — Encode, Decode & Look Up Characters

Free Unicode converter to encode text to Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16, HTML entities, URL encode), decode Unicode back to text, and look up character information. Supports bidirectional conversion and auto-detection. All data processed locally in your browser.

Features

✓Encode text to Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16, HTML, CSS, URL)
✓Decode Unicode back to text
✓Auto-detect input format
✓Look up character information
✓View 11 encoding formats for each character
✓Bidirectional conversion support
✓Support for all Unicode characters
✓Includes Emoji and special symbols
✓Copy any value with one click
✓All data processed locally in your browser

How to Use

1Encode mode: Enter text to convert to Unicode format.
2Decode mode: Paste Unicode to convert back to text.
3Lookup mode: Enter a character to see all its encodings.
4Select output format (U+XXXX, JS escape, HTML entity, etc.).
5Click any value to copy it to clipboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

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