Binary to Hex Converter

How to Convert Binary to Hexadecimal

Converting binary to hexadecimal by hand is straightforward once you know the routine. The converter above does it instantly, but working through the steps yourself is the fastest way to understand what is actually happening to the digits.

1. Starting from the right, split the binary number into groups of 4 digits. Pad the leftmost group with leading zeros if it is short.
2. Write the place values 8, 4, 2, 1 underneath each group.
3. In every group, add the place values wherever the bit is 1.
4. Convert each group total into a single hexadecimal digit.
5. Write the hexadecimal digits in the same left to right order as the groups.

Worked example: 10101010

Result: (10101010)² = (AA)¹⁶

The Binary System

Binary is the base 2 numeral system. It uses only two symbols, 0 and 1, and each digit is called a bit. Every digital circuit ever built relies on it, because a transistor has two reliable states, on and off, which map directly onto 1 and 0. Place values double as you move left: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on. Eight bits make one byte, which can hold 256 distinct values, enough for every character in the original ASCII set.

Binary uses the digits 0 and 1.

The Hexadecimal System

Hexadecimal is the base 16 system. It uses the digits 0 through 9 and then the letters A through F to stand for the values 10 through 15. Its key property is that one hex digit represents exactly four binary digits, a nibble, so a single byte is always two hex characters. That compactness is why hex shows up everywhere in computing: HTML colour codes such as FFFFFF for white and 000000 for black, memory addresses, MAC addresses, hash digests, and byte level debugging output.

Hexadecimal uses the digits 0 through 9 and A through F.

Binary to Hexadecimal Conversion Examples

Binary to Hexadecimal Conversion Chart

A full reference table for the values 1 to 256. Use it to check a conversion quickly or to look up a common value without typing anything.

Need a different pair of bases? Browse every number converter tool including binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal in both directions.