Change CSV Encoding
Change character encoding to UTF8 or ISO-8859-1. Runs entirely in your browser, so your data never leaves your device.
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Output
The result appears here as you type.
How to use Change CSV Encoding
- 1. Paste the CSV text. Enter the data in the input pane, accents and special characters included. What you paste is Unicode text; the encoding you choose controls how it becomes bytes.
- 2. Pick the target encoding. Encode as offers UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) and UTF-16 LE. Choose UTF-8 with BOM to make Excel detect accents correctly, or Latin-1 for legacy systems that predate Unicode.
- 3. Download the encoded file. Save the produced .csv, whose bytes now match the chosen charset. Characters that cannot exist in the target encoding are flagged rather than silently mangled.
When to use Change CSV Encoding
Change CSV Encoding re-encodes a file's bytes as UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, Latin-1 or UTF-16 LE. Encoding mismatches are why perfectly good data displays as garbled characters after an import, and picking the right byte representation for the destination fixes it at the source.
- Making Excel show accents correctly. Double-clicking a plain UTF-8 CSV in Excel turns Torino's città into gibberish. Re-encoding as UTF-8 with BOM makes Excel detect the charset and render every accent properly.
- Feeding a Latin-1-only system. An older ERP or government upload portal specifies ISO-8859-1 input. Encoding the file to Latin-1 here means the target reads names with European accents as intended.
- Matching a spec that demands UTF-16. Some Windows-centric integrations and tab-delimited import paths expect UTF-16 LE files. Producing those bytes in the browser beats hunting for iconv flags.
- Standardizing mixed-source files. Files arriving from various partners carry various encodings. Re-encoding everything to plain UTF-8 on arrival gives the rest of your pipeline one consistent assumption.
Examples
Re-encode for a legacy import
Input
name,città Ada,Torino
Output
A downloadable data.csv encoded as ISO-8859-1 bytes.
About the Change CSV Encoding tool
Change CSV Encoding runs as plain JavaScript in your browser tab, with no server behind it. Change character encoding to UTF8 or ISO-8859-1. Whatever you put in stays on your device from start to finish.
The tool is part of EditSafely's CSV Tools section, 133 single-purpose utilities built around the same idea: open the page, get the result, keep your data to yourself.
You can shape the output with the Encode as setting, and the result refreshes the moment you change it. The finished file is put together in browser memory and saved with the Download button, so it never touches a server on the way to your disk. A worked example further down the page shows exactly what the tool produces for a real input.
That local-first design has practical benefits beyond privacy. The tool keeps working on a flaky connection once the page has loaded, results are instant because nothing round-trips to a server, and it is safe to use with confidential material.
Frequently asked questions
Does Change CSV Encoding cost anything?
Yes, it is completely free. All 2,658 tools on EditSafely work without an account, a subscription or usage limits.
Is it safe to paste sensitive or confidential data?
No data leaves your device. The whole tool is JavaScript that runs inside your browser tab, so there is no upload, no server-side processing and no log of what you did. If you disconnect from the internet after the page loads, it keeps working.
How much text can I process at once?
There is no fixed limit. Because the work happens on your own device rather than on a shared server, the practical ceiling is your machine's memory, which comfortably handles inputs far larger than typical online tools allow.
Do I need to sign up or install anything?
Nothing to install and no account needed. Open the page in any up-to-date browser, including on a phone or tablet, and the tool is ready.
How do I save the output?
Click the Download button once the result is ready. The file is built in your browser's memory and handed straight to your downloads folder, without passing through a server.