What encoding is this text file?
Drop a text file
Plain text, CSV, subtitles, code and logs
Works with TXT CSV JSON XML SRT
or paste a link (Ctrl+V) Paste a link
How it works
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Drop your file in the box above, or tap to choose one.
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We read the information saved inside it. This takes a few seconds.
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The answer appears right away, with a link you can share and the full details if you want them.
Encoding, BOM and line endings
A text file is just bytes; the encoding says which characters they stand for. UTF-8 handles every language and is the default almost everywhere, but older files may use another encoding, and opening them the wrong way turns "é" into "é".
Two more details cause trouble: a byte order mark (BOM) at the start, which some tools show as junk, and line endings, which differ between Windows (CRLF) and Mac or Linux (LF). This checker shows all three.
- Character encoding
- Byte order mark
- Line endings
- Line and word count
Questions and answers
How do I check if a file is UTF-8?
Drop it into the box above. We show the encoding, whether it has a BOM and how its lines end.
Why does my CSV show strange characters in Excel?
Excel guesses the encoding. A UTF-8 file without a BOM is often read as an older encoding, so accents break. Saving as "CSV UTF-8" adds the BOM Excel looks for.
What is a BOM?
A few invisible bytes at the start of a file that mark it as Unicode. Excel likes it; some programming tools and web servers don't.
What is the difference between CRLF and LF?
Two ways to end a line: Windows uses carriage return plus line feed (CRLF), Mac and Linux use a line feed (LF). Mixing them causes errors in scripts and noisy diffs in Git.
Can it detect every encoding?
It reliably tells ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 apart. Older single-byte encodings are harder to tell from each other.
What happens to my file?
Your file is sent over an encrypted connection, read on our servers and deleted automatically after about 24 hours. The answer is kept on a page with its own link, so you can share it. Tool result pages are never listed in search engines.