Enter two hex values and an operation, or convert a single value between hex and decimal.
Convert a single value between the two number systems.
Each hex digit represents a power of 16 based on its position, counting from the right starting at 16⁰, with the letters A-F standing in for the values 10-15. Multiply each digit's value by its positional power of 16 and add them up: hex 1A = 1×16¹ + 10×16⁰ = 16 + 10 = 26 in decimal.
Hex gives a compact, human-friendly way to represent binary data — each hex digit corresponds to exactly 4 binary bits (a "nibble"), so a full 8-bit byte is always exactly 2 hex digits. That makes hex far shorter to read and write than the equivalent binary string, which is why it's the go-to notation for memory addresses, color codes (like #1A2B3C), and raw byte-level data throughout computing.
Hex addition carries the same way decimal addition does, just rolling over to a carry once a column passes F (15) instead of 9. This tool handles that automatically by converting each hex value to decimal, performing the arithmetic normally, and converting the sum back to hex.
F, representing the decimal value 15 — the largest value a single hex digit can hold, the same way 9 is the largest single decimal digit. Two hex digits together (00-FF) cover the full range of one byte, 0-255 in decimal.
Worked example: adding hex 1A (26) and 2F (47): 26 + 47 = 73, which is 49 in hex. Converting FF to decimal: F×16¹ + F×16⁰ = 15×16 + 15×1 = 240 + 15 = 255, the maximum value a single byte can hold.