Hex Viewer
Look inside a file you own or have the right to inspect, byte by byte. Free, with no sign up. Your file stays in this browser; nothing is uploaded.
Or drop it here.
What you can see in a file's bytes
- The signature at the start, which names the format a file claims to be.
- Readable text inside a program or data file, in the right-hand column.
- Where the data is packed tight (compressed or encrypted) and where it is empty, from the entropy chart.
- Numbers stored in a header, read as 8, 16 or 32-bit values in either byte order.
Open only files you own or have the right to inspect.
How to use this tool
Pick a file you own or have the right to inspect, or try the sample. Click a bar in the entropy chart to jump there, click a byte to read it as numbers, or search for text or hex bytes.
Frequently asked questions
Is my file uploaded?
No. The file is read in small slices inside your browser. This page makes no network call with it, so even a large file stays on your device.
How big a file can it open?
Files of a gigabyte or more open, because the page reads only the rows on screen. The entropy chart and search read the whole file in 4 MB slices and show their progress.
What does the entropy chart show?
Each bar is one block of the file. Its height is the Shannon entropy of the bytes in it, from 0 to 8 bits per byte. Near 0 is empty space or padding, about 3.5 to 5.5 is usually text, and above 7.5 is usually compressed or encrypted data.
How does it know the file type?
It reads the signature, the first few bytes many formats start with, such as 89 50 4E 47 for PNG or 50 4B 03 04 for ZIP. A signature says what the file claims to be. It does not prove the rest of the file is valid.
How do I type an offset?
Start hex with 0x, like 0x1F40. Plain digits are read as decimal, like 8000. A value with the letters A to F and no 0x is read as hex.
What do little-endian and big-endian mean?
They are the two byte orders for numbers wider than one byte. Little-endian puts the smallest byte first and is used by most PCs and phones. Big-endian puts the largest byte first and is common in network formats and some file headers.