Binary hex viewer
Browse any file as hexadecimal bytes and ASCII with precise offsets, paged navigation and page export.
How it works & useful details
Inspect bytes without opening or executing the file. Each page shows up to 256 bytes.
Everything runs locally. Files are never uploaded. Maximum 16 MiB per input file, 32 MiB combined, and 1 file. Processing can be cancelled.
About this tool
Binary hex viewer shows any file as hexadecimal bytes alongside an ASCII column with precise offsets. It is the tool for inspecting file headers, checking magic bytes, or confirming what a binary actually contains.
Navigation is paged so large files remain responsive, and each page can be exported. The file is read locally and never uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose the file you want to inspect.
- Page through the bytes and read the offset column.
- Use the ASCII column to spot readable strings.
- Export a page of the hex dump if you need to share it.
Worked example
The first 16 bytes of a PNG image look like this:
00000000 89 50 4e 47 0d 0a 1a 0a 00 00 00 0d 49 48 44 52 .PNG........IHDRThe left column is the offset in hexadecimal, the middle shows each byte as two hex digits, and the right shows the printable ASCII characters, with dots for everything else. The signature 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A identifies every PNG file, whatever its extension says. It is followed by the IHDR chunk that holds the image dimensions.
Recognising file types by their first bytes
- 25 50 44 46 (%PDF): PDF document.
- FF D8 FF: JPEG image.
- 50 4B 03 04 (PK..): ZIP archive, including DOCX, XLSX, APK, and JAR files.
- 1F 8B: GZIP-compressed data.
- EF BB BF: UTF-8 byte-order mark at the start of a text file.
- 4D 5A (MZ): Windows executable.
A hex view helps when a file will not open, when you suspect the extension is wrong, or when you need to check for a byte-order mark or unexpected line endings (0D 0A for Windows, 0A for Unix). The file is only read, never opened or executed, so it is safe to inspect suspicious downloads. Pages show 256 bytes at a time, and you can jump to any page.
Frequently asked questions
What are the offsets?
They are the byte positions measured from the start of the file, shown in hexadecimal so they line up with typical binary tooling.
Can I edit the bytes?
No. The viewer is read-only; it inspects the file without modifying it.
What is the file size limit?
Up to 16 MiB per file, 32 MiB combined, processed locally.