Step-by-step calculation
Enter a hex value to see the powers-of-16 expansion.
Base-16 to base-10
Hex to Decimal Converter
Enter a hexadecimal value and convert it to decimal, binary, and a readable place-value breakdown.
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Binary-
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Hexadecimal place values
Hexadecimal is base-16. Reading from right to left, each place is a power of 16: 1, 16, 256, 4096, and so on. Digits A through F represent decimal values 10 through 15.
For FF, the left digit contributes 15 x 16 and the right digit contributes 15 x 1. The total is 255. This is why FF often appears as the maximum value of one byte.
| Hex | Decimal | Binary |
|---|---|---|
| A | 10 | 1010 |
| F | 15 | 1111 |
| 10 | 16 | 10000 |
| 2A | 42 | 0010 1010 |
| FF | 255 | 1111 1111 |
Hexadecimal place-value examples
Each position in a hexadecimal number represents a power of 16. In 2A, the digit 2 is in the sixteens place and A represents decimal 10 in the ones place, so the result is 2 x 16 + 10 = 42. In FF, both digits represent 15, giving 15 x 16 + 15 = 255.
Hex is useful when a binary value is too long to scan but the individual four-bit groups still matter. A byte such as 11111111 can be written as FF, and the decimal value is 255. Use the result as an unsigned whole number unless your programming language or protocol defines a signed interpretation.
Input formats and common mistakes
You can enter values such as FF, 2A, or 0xFF. The prefix is removed before conversion, spaces are ignored, and letters are treated case-insensitively. A value containing a character outside 0–9 and A–F is not a valid hexadecimal number. If you expected readable letters rather than a numeric answer, use the Binary Code Translator or ASCII Table to check whether the original value represents text.