Unicode Escape / Unescape
Escape non-ASCII text to \uXXXX sequences or unescape them back to readable text. Free and private, right in your browser.
Convert text between readable Unicode characters and their \u escape-sequence form, handy when you're debugging a JSON payload full of \\u00e9 codes, prepping a Java .properties file, or turning emoji and accented text into pure-ASCII escapes for a system that chokes on anything else.
How to use it
- Paste your text or \u-escaped string into the box
- Choose Escape (text to \u) or Unescape (\u to text)
- Copy the converted result
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between A and 😀 style escapes?
- A is a single 4-hex-digit code unit (BMP character, like "A"). Characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane, like emoji, need a surrogate pair, two \u escapes together, e.g. 😀 for 😀. The tool handles both directions correctly, pairing and unpairing surrogates as needed.
- Will it escape plain ASCII letters and numbers too?
- No. By default only non-ASCII characters (accents, symbols, emoji, CJK, etc.) get turned into \u sequences, since that's the usual reason to escape: making non-ASCII text safe for JSON, .properties files, or old ASCII-only systems. Letters, digits, and punctuation stay as-is.
- Does this handle JSON string escaping the same way JSON.stringify does?
- Yes, unescaping reads standard \uXXXX sequences the same way JSON and JavaScript string literals do, so you can paste a JSON value straight in and get back the real Unicode text, or go the other way to produce ASCII-safe JSON.
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Nothing is uploaded
The file never leaves your device. There is no server to send it to, so there is nothing to leak, log, or subpoena.
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No signup, no limits
No account, no email, no daily cap, no watermark, and no paid tier waiting behind the third file.
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Works offline
Load the page once and it keeps working with the network off, because all the work was always happening locally.