To answer the original question: here is how you decode utf-8 in javascript:

http://ecmanaut.blogspot.ca/2006/07/encoding-decoding-utf8-in-javascript.html

Specifically,

function encode_utf8(s) {
  return unescape(encodeURIComponent(s));
}

function decode_utf8(s) {
  return decodeURIComponent(escape(s));
}

We have been using this in our production code for 6 years, and it has worked flawlessly.

Note, however, that escape() and unescape() are deprecated. See this.

Answer from CpnCrunch on Stack Overflow
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Hixie
software.hixie.ch › utilities › cgi › unicode-decoder › utf8-decoder
utf8-decoder
Input type: Embedded Freeform numeric Hexadecimal Binary UTF-8 interpreted as Windows-1252 · Note: Non-numeric characters in "freeform numeric" and "hexadecimal" modes are silently stripped. In "binary" mode, bytes must be separated from each by spaces, tabs, or newlines; other characters ...
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DEV Community
dev.to › emnudge › decoding-utf-8-3947
Decoding UTF-8 - DEV Community
May 16, 2021 - I've placed the code for my UTF-8 encoder/decoder into a Svelte REPL over here: https://svelte.dev/repl/9d89e50badbd458599fc62cde67fc9b3?version=3.24.1
Discussions

unicode - Decode UTF-8 with Javascript - Stack Overflow
Not necessarily. utf8_encode transforms ... "GröÃe" → utf8_encode "GröÃÂe". If you apply it when you don't need it, your string screws up. ... Save this answer. ... Show activity on this post. To answer the original question: here is how you decode utf-8 in ... More on stackoverflow.com
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java - string decode utf-8 - Stack Overflow
Not clear, how incomplete multibyte UTF8 chunks are handled. 2023-12-25T18:23:35.407Z+00:00 ... Try looking at decode string encoded in utf-8 format in android but it doesn't look like your string is encoded with anything particular. More on stackoverflow.com
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Decoding UTF-8 strings in Python - Stack Overflow
I'm writing a web crawler in python, and it involves taking headlines from websites. One of the headlines should've read : And the Hip's coming, too But instead it said: And the Hip’s coming, t... More on stackoverflow.com
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Trouble Decoding from UTF-8
But in my actual code where I read the string from a source Show us an example of the string when read from a source. Print it as print(f"{string_from_source!r}"). The !r bit prints the unambiguous representation. More on reddit.com
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5
2
February 11, 2025
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Mother Eff
mothereff.in › utf-8
UTF-8 encoder/decoder
This tool uses utf8.js to UTF-8-encode any string you enter in the ‘decoded’ field, or to decode any UTF-8-encoded string you enter in the ‘encoded’ field.
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Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com › en-us › dotnet › api › system.text.utf8encoding.getdecoder
UTF8Encoding.GetDecoder Method (System.Text) | Microsoft Learn
The decoder converts a sequence of bytes into a sequence of characters. using System; using System.Text; class UTF8EncodingExample { public static void Main() { Char[] chars; Byte[] bytes = new Byte[] { 99, 204, 128, 234, 130, 160 }; Decoder ...
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Teleport
goteleport.com › home › resources › tools › utf-8 decoder | instantly transform utf-8 hex to readable text
UTF-8 Decoder | Instantly Transform UTF-8 Hex to Readable Text | Teleport
UTF-8 decoding is the reverse process, taking a sequence of UTF-8 encoded bytes and transforming them back into their original Unicode characters.
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DomSignal
domsignal.com › home › tools › utf-8 decoder & encoder
UTF-8 Decoder - Encode and Decode UTF-8 Text
Decode UTF-8 hex bytes to text or encode text to UTF-8 byte sequences online. Client-side converter with no API request required.
Find elsewhere
Top answer
1 of 3
50

A string needs no encoding. It is simply a sequence of Unicode characters.

You need to encode when you want to turn a String into a sequence of bytes. The charset the you choose (UTF-8, cp1255, etc.) determines the Character->Byte mapping. Note that a character is not necessarily translated into a single byte. In most charsets, most Unicode characters are translated to at least two bytes.

Encoding of a String is carried out by:

String s1 = "some text";
byte[] bytes = s1.getBytes("UTF-8"); // Charset to encode into

You need to decode when you have а sequence of bytes and you want to turn them into a String. When yоu dо that you need to specify, again, the charset with which the bytеs were originally encoded (otherwise you'll end up with garblеd tеxt).

Decoding:

String s2 = new String(bytes, "UTF-8"); // Charset with which bytes were encoded 

If you want to understand this better, a great text is "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)"

2 of 3
10

the core functions are getBytes(String charset) and new String(byte[] data). you can use these functions to do UTF-8 decoding.

UTF-8 decoding actually is a string to string conversion, the intermediate buffer is a byte array. since the target is an UTF-8 string, so the only parameter for new String() is the byte array, which calling is equal to new String(bytes, "UTF-8")

Then the key is the parameter for input encoded string to get internal byte array, which you should know beforehand. If you don't, guess the most possible one, "ISO-8859-1" is a good guess for English user.

The decoding sentence should be

String decoded = new String(encoded.getBytes("ISO-8859-1"));
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Testsigma
testsigma.com › home › free tools › utf8 decode
UTF-8 Decoder Online | Free Decode & Validate Tool
Free UTF-8 decoder to convert hex, percent-encoded, binary & more. Validate bytes, detect errors, and inspect characters instantly no login needed.
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PHP
php.net › manual › en › function.utf8-decode.php
PHP: utf8_decode - Manual
Please note that utf8_decode simply converts a string encoded in UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1. A more appropriate name for it would be utf8_to_iso88591. If your text is already encoded in ISO-8859-1, you do not need this function.
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GitHub
gist.github.com › tylerneylon › 9773800
C utf-8 encoder/decoder · GitHub
My intention is to keep the decoder lenient, so if the only "errors" I can find in the decoder have to do with accepting ill-formed utf-8, then that is just matching the design principle of this decoder. (But I'd like it to strictly provide correct output on all correctly-formed input.) Markus Kuhn's utf-8 stress test file. ... @ianciose, I'm not testing the code below (so 🤞 ) but this is the idea of usage. Note that different code conventions may denote the end of the string in different ways. In the code below, I'll end each buffer with a 0 value. // Convert a utf-8 byte array into unicode code points: char *utf8_bytes = get_utf8_bytes(); // The end is marked by a zero byte here.
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SmallDev
smalldev.tools › utf8-decoder-online
UTF8 Decoder online - SmallDev.tools
👍Decode a UTF8 encoded string instantly. Fast, simple & secure. One click to copy & share output.
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Browserling
browserling.com › tools › utf8-decode
UTF8 Decoder
World's simplest online UTF8 decoder for web developers and programmers. Just paste your UTF8-encoded data in the form below, press the UTF8 Decode button, and you'll get back the original text.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › UTF-8
UTF-8 - Wikipedia
1 day ago - In some cases the user will want to ensure no normalization is done; for this "utf8-c8" can be used. That UTF-8 Clean-8 variant, implemented by Raku, is an encoder/decoder that preserves bytes as is (even illegal UTF-8 sequences) and allows for Normal Form Grapheme synthetics.
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Omarpolo
omarpolo.com › post › parsing-utf8.html
Parsing UTF-8
January 11, 2021 - // Copyright (c) 2008-2009 Bjoern Hoehrmann <bjoern@hoehrmann.de> // See http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de/utf-8/decoder/dfa/ for details. #define UTF8_ACCEPT 0 #define UTF8_REJECT 1 static const uint8_t utf8d[] = { /* lots of data */ }; uint32_t inline decode(uint32_t* state, uint32_t* codep, uint32_t byte) { uint32_t type = utf8d[byte]; *codep = (*state != UTF8_ACCEPT) ?
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Google
toolbox.googleapps.com › apps › encode_decode
Encode/Decode
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › trouble decoding from utf-8
r/learnpython on Reddit: Trouble Decoding from UTF-8
February 11, 2025 -

I have some code that ends up retrieving a bunch of strings, and each one is basically a utf-8 encoded symbol in string format, such as 'm\xc3\xbasica mexicana'. I want to encode this into bytes and then decode it as UTF-8 so that I can convert it into something like "música mexicana". I can achieve this if I start with a string that I create myself like below:

encoded_str = 'm\xc3\xbasica mexicana'
utf8_encoded = encoded_str.encode('raw_unicode_escape')
decoded_str = utf8_encoded.decode(encoding='UTF-8')
print(decoded_str)

# This prints "música mexicana", which is the desired result

But in my actual code where I read the string from a source and don't create it myself the encoding always adds an extra backslash in front of the original string backslashes. Then when I decode it it just converts back to the original string without the second backslash.

# Exclude Artist pages
excluded_words = ['image', 'followers', 'googleapis']
excluded_words_found = any(word in hashtag for word in excluded_words)
if not excluded_words_found or len(hashtag) < 50:
    # Encode string into bytes then utf decode it to convert characters with accents    

    hashtag = hashtag.encode('raw_unicode_escape')
    hashtag = hashtag.decode(encoding='UTF-8')
   
    # Add hashtag and uri to list
    hashtags_uris.append((hashtag, uri))

I've tried so many things, including using latin1 encoding instead of raw_unicode_escape and get the same result every time. Can anyone help me make sense of this?

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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
Encoding and decoding with UTF-8 - YouTube
The video explains what is encoding and decoding are and how utf-8 helps in this process without data loss supporting all characters, symbols, languages. The...
Published   April 6, 2026
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Cokotools
cokotools.com › encryption › utf8-decode
UTF8 decoding-Online free UTF8 decoding tool-CokoTools
UTF8 decoding. Pure online tool, no uploading server browser local processing