Text Encoding Detector
Detect the likely character encoding of text.
Which encoding is this?
Garbled characters usually mean an encoding mismatch. This inspects the bytes for signatures — a UTF-8 BOM, byte patterns, ASCII range — to suggest the most likely encoding behind pasted or uploaded text.
It is a first step when text arrives full of question marks or odd symbols, pointing you toward whether to re-open the file as UTF-8, Latin-1, or something else.
A best guess
Short samples are ambiguous, so treat the result as a strong hint rather than a certainty. Your text is analysed on the page and never uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the text encoding detector work?
The detector looks for replacement characters, ASCII-only content, control characters, and common mojibake patterns such as é to guess likely encoding issues.
When should I use this tool?
Use it when pasted text looks corrupted after exports, CMS migrations, CSV imports, or old database transfers.
What is the main limitation?
Encoding detection is heuristic; without original bytes no browser tool can prove the source encoding perfectly.
Is this converter private?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, so your values are not uploaded or stored.
More free browser utilities for conversion, formatting, and technical cleanup.