Unicode & UTF-16 Escape Converter

Encode text to Unicode escape sequences (\u0041, \u{1F600}) and decode escaped strings back to UTF-8.

Unicode & UTF-16 Escape Converter

Encode text to Unicode escape sequences (\u0041, \u{1F600}) and decode escaped strings back to UTF-8.

Plain Text Input:

Escaped Output:

Hello World! \ud83d\ude80 Caf\u00e9 \u20ac

About This Tool

The Unicode & UTF-16 Escape Converter encodes strings into standard 4-digit hexadecimal Unicode escape sequences (`\uXXXX`), ES6 code point escapes (`\u{1F600}`), and HTML entity codes (`&#x...;`), and decodes escaped strings back to plain text.

Key Features

Encodes text to 4-digit `\uXXXX` and ES6 `\u{XXXXX}` Unicode escapes

Decodes escaped Unicode strings back to readable UTF-8 characters

Handles emojis and surrogate pairs (`\uD83D\uDE00`)

Bi-directional encode / decode with instant copy

How to Use

1Select mode (Encode to Unicode Escapes or Decode to Plain Text).
2Type or paste your text content.
3Instantly view and copy the converted Unicode string.

Why Use ToolSnippet Unicode & UTF-16 Escape Converter?

Embed non-ASCII characters and emojis safely inside JSON, Java, or C++ source files.

Unpack escaped strings extracted from log files or network payloads.

Tips for Best Results

Characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP, like emojis) require surrogate pairs (`\uD83D\uDE80`) in legacy JavaScript engines.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between \u0041 and \u{41}?

`\u0041` is the fixed 4-hex-digit escape notation. `\u{41}` is the ES6 variable-length code point notation that supports characters up to `\u{10FFFF}` without surrogate pairs.

How are surrogate pairs represented?

A surrogate pair consists of a High Surrogate (`0xD800–0xDBFF`) and a Low Surrogate (`0xDC00–0xDFFF`) combined to represent code points > 65,535.

Related Tools

All Encoding & Decoding Utilities →

Unicode & UTF-16 Escape Converter