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Text Encoding Converter

Fix text files that show garbled characters such as “é” or “�” by converting them from their original legacy encoding to UTF-8. Choose the source encoding (Windows-1252, ISO-8859-x, Mac Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and more) or let the tool detect UTF-8 and UTF-16 automatically, preview the result and download the UTF-8 copy.

File Utilities Runs in your browser

Convert a Text File to UTF-8

Drag and drop text files here, or click to browseAccepted: TXT, CSV, TSV, SRT, SUB, VTT, INI, LOG, XML, HTML, HTM, MD, JSON, SQL, PROPERTIES. Up to 50 MB each.

How to Use the Encoding Converter

  1. Choose one or more text files.
  2. Pick the source encoding, or leave it on automatic detection.
  3. Press Convert to UTF-8 and check the preview. If the text still looks wrong, try another source encoding.
  4. Download the converted files (several files come as a ZIP).

About This Tool

Anyone opening old Windows or Mac text files, subtitle files, CSV exports from older systems, or documents from another country that display the wrong characters.

Input: Text files  ·  Output: UTF-8 text.

Features and Limitations

Features

  • More than 25 source encodings using your browser's standards-based decoder.
  • Automatic detection of UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM and UTF-16, with a Windows-1252 fallback.
  • Counts characters that could not be decoded, so you can tell when the wrong encoding was chosen.
  • Optional BOM for Excel compatibility.
  • Batch conversion with a ZIP download.

Limitations

  • Automatic detection cannot reliably tell single-byte legacy encodings apart; it assumes Windows-1252 when a file is not UTF-8 or UTF-16. Choose the right encoding yourself for Cyrillic, Greek, Asian or other scripts.
  • Browsers decode ISO-8859-1 as Windows-1252 (as the web standard requires), which only differs for rare control characters in the 0x80–0x9F range.
  • Converts to UTF-8 only; it does not write legacy encodings.
  • Line endings are left unchanged; use the Line Ending Converter for that.
  • Processing happens on your device, so very large files depend on your browser's available memory.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which encoding my file uses?

Look at where the file came from: Western Windows programs usually used Windows-1252, Russian ones Windows-1251 or KOI8-R, Japanese ones Shift_JIS. Try the likely encoding and check the preview; if the letters look right, it is correct.

What does the replacement character count mean?

It counts bytes that are invalid in the chosen encoding and became “�”. A high count usually means the wrong source encoding was selected.

Should I add a BOM?

Only if a program needs it. Excel uses the BOM to recognise UTF-8 CSV files; most other software prefers files without it.

Is my file uploaded?

No. Decoding and re-encoding happen in your browser.

Related Tools

More like this: all File Utilities tools, all Files & Documents tools or the TinySandy home page.