Hex Viewer

What this tool does

Hex Viewer displays an uploaded file’s raw bytes as a classic hex-and-ASCII dump (up to the first 256 KB), with a text search that highlights the row containing a match, useful for inspecting a file’s structure, debugging a binary format, or checking for embedded text.

Sometimes understanding a file means looking past whatever application normally opens it and seeing its actual raw bytes, debugging a corrupted file, verifying a binary format’s header, or just checking whether a piece of text is embedded somewhere inside a binary blob.

This viewer displays a file’s raw bytes in the classic hex-and-ASCII dump layout, offset on the left, hexadecimal byte values in the middle, printable ASCII on the right, with a text search that jumps straight to the matching row, all read and rendered entirely in your browser.

How to use Hex Viewer

1. Choose a file to inspect.
2. Scroll through the hex dump, reading the offset, hex bytes and ASCII columns.
3. Use Search for text to find and highlight a specific string within the file.
4. Note the matched offset to locate the exact bytes in context.

Tips for better results

• Only the first 256 KB of a file is loaded and shown, sufficient for inspecting headers, structure and most embedded text without risking a huge, slow render for very large files.
• The ASCII column shows a dot (.) for any non-printable byte, so you can distinguish readable text from binary data at a glance.
• A search match is highlighted by row, not by exact byte position, scan the highlighted row’s hex and ASCII columns to pinpoint the exact bytes.
• Comparing a file’s first few bytes here against known magic-byte signatures (see the File Type Detector) is a reliable way to identify its real format.

Common use cases

• Inspecting a file’s header bytes to understand or verify its format.
• Searching for embedded text strings (like a URL, key, or error message) within a binary file.
• Debugging a custom binary file format during development.
• Learning how common file formats are structured at the byte level.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Expecting to see the entire content of a very large file; only the first 256 KB is loaded, sufficient for most header/structure inspection but not a full-file dump.
• Searching for text that happens to be encoded differently (like UTF-16) than the plain UTF-8 bytes being searched for, which can miss an otherwise-present match.
• Treating a non-printable "." in the ASCII column as meaningful data, it only indicates the byte isn’t a printable ASCII character, the actual hex value still tells you its real content.