All 128 characters, including the 33 that print nothing.

128 characters

Matches the decimal value, the hex value, a single character, the name, the abbreviation, or any of the alternate names the standard gives.

Which control characters anything still uses

Counted across every text file in this site, its built HTML, and twelve public-domain books. Four of the thirty-three turned up at all, and two of those turned up twice.

LF · LINE FEED: 434,063
CR · CARRIAGE RETURN: 229,147
HT · CHARACTER TABULATION: 3
BS · BACKSPACE: 2

The other 29 did not occur once.

Control characters

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
0	00	000	00000000	NUL	NULLnever seen
1	01	001	00000001	SOH	START OF HEADINGnever seen
2	02	002	00000010	STX	START OF TEXTnever seen
3	03	003	00000011	ETX	END OF TEXTnever seen
4	04	004	00000100	EOT	END OF TRANSMISSIONnever seen
5	05	005	00000101	ENQ	ENQUIRYnever seen
6	06	006	00000110	ACK	ACKNOWLEDGEnever seen
7	07	007	00000111	BEL	ALERTnever seen
8	08	010	00001000	BS	BACKSPACE
9	09	011	00001001	HT	CHARACTER TABULATIONalso HORIZONTAL TABULATION
10	0A	012	00001010	LF	LINE FEEDalso NEW LINE, END OF LINE
11	0B	013	00001011	VT	LINE TABULATIONalso VERTICAL TABULATIONnever seen
12	0C	014	00001100	FF	FORM FEEDnever seen
13	0D	015	00001101	CR	CARRIAGE RETURN
14	0E	016	00001110	SO	SHIFT OUTalso LOCKING-SHIFT ONEnever seen
15	0F	017	00001111	SI	SHIFT INalso LOCKING-SHIFT ZEROnever seen
16	10	020	00010000	DLE	DATA LINK ESCAPEnever seen
17	11	021	00010001	DC1	DEVICE CONTROL ONEnever seen
18	12	022	00010010	DC2	DEVICE CONTROL TWOnever seen
19	13	023	00010011	DC3	DEVICE CONTROL THREEnever seen
20	14	024	00010100	DC4	DEVICE CONTROL FOURnever seen
21	15	025	00010101	NAK	NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGEnever seen
22	16	026	00010110	SYN	SYNCHRONOUS IDLEnever seen
23	17	027	00010111	ETB	END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCKnever seen
24	18	030	00011000	CAN	CANCELnever seen
25	19	031	00011001	EOM	END OF MEDIUMnever seen
26	1A	032	00011010	SUB	SUBSTITUTEnever seen
27	1B	033	00011011	ESC	ESCAPEnever seen
28	1C	034	00011100	FS	INFORMATION SEPARATOR FOURalso FILE SEPARATORnever seen
29	1D	035	00011101	GS	INFORMATION SEPARATOR THREEalso GROUP SEPARATORnever seen
30	1E	036	00011110	RS	INFORMATION SEPARATOR TWOalso RECORD SEPARATORnever seen
31	1F	037	00011111	US	INFORMATION SEPARATOR ONEalso UNIT SEPARATORnever seen
127	7F	177	01111111	DEL	DELETEnever seen

Punctuation and symbols

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
32	20	040	00100000		SPACE
33	21	041	00100001	!	EXCLAMATION MARK
34	22	042	00100010	"	QUOTATION MARK
35	23	043	00100011	#	NUMBER SIGN
36	24	044	00100100	$	DOLLAR SIGN
37	25	045	00100101	%	PERCENT SIGN
38	26	046	00100110	&	AMPERSAND
39	27	047	00100111	'	APOSTROPHE
40	28	050	00101000	(	LEFT PARENTHESIS
41	29	051	00101001	)	RIGHT PARENTHESIS
42	2A	052	00101010	*	ASTERISK
43	2B	053	00101011	+	PLUS SIGN
44	2C	054	00101100	,	COMMA
45	2D	055	00101101	-	HYPHEN-MINUS
46	2E	056	00101110	.	FULL STOP
47	2F	057	00101111	/	SOLIDUS
58	3A	072	00111010	:	COLON
59	3B	073	00111011	;	SEMICOLON
60	3C	074	00111100	<	LESS-THAN SIGN
61	3D	075	00111101	=	EQUALS SIGN
62	3E	076	00111110	>	GREATER-THAN SIGN
63	3F	077	00111111	?	QUESTION MARK
64	40	100	01000000	@	COMMERCIAL AT
91	5B	133	01011011	[	LEFT SQUARE BRACKET
92	5C	134	01011100	\	REVERSE SOLIDUS
93	5D	135	01011101	]	RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET
94	5E	136	01011110	^	CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
95	5F	137	01011111	_	LOW LINE
96	60	140	01100000	`	GRAVE ACCENT
123	7B	173	01111011	{	LEFT CURLY BRACKET
124	7C	174	01111100	\|	VERTICAL LINE
125	7D	175	01111101	}	RIGHT CURLY BRACKET
126	7E	176	01111110	~	TILDE

Space is the one printable character with an official abbreviation, SP — it prints nothing, so the standard gives it a short form the way it does for the controls.

Digits

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
48	30	060	00110000	0	DIGIT ZERO
49	31	061	00110001	1	DIGIT ONE
50	32	062	00110010	2	DIGIT TWO
51	33	063	00110011	3	DIGIT THREE
52	34	064	00110100	4	DIGIT FOUR
53	35	065	00110101	5	DIGIT FIVE
54	36	066	00110110	6	DIGIT SIX
55	37	067	00110111	7	DIGIT SEVEN
56	38	070	00111000	8	DIGIT EIGHT
57	39	071	00111001	9	DIGIT NINE

Uppercase letters

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
65	41	101	01000001	A	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A
66	42	102	01000010	B	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B
67	43	103	01000011	C	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
68	44	104	01000100	D	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D
69	45	105	01000101	E	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E
70	46	106	01000110	F	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F
71	47	107	01000111	G	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G
72	48	110	01001000	H	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H
73	49	111	01001001	I	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I
74	4A	112	01001010	J	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J
75	4B	113	01001011	K	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K
76	4C	114	01001100	L	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L
77	4D	115	01001101	M	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
78	4E	116	01001110	N	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N
79	4F	117	01001111	O	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O
80	50	120	01010000	P	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P
81	51	121	01010001	Q	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q
82	52	122	01010010	R	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R
83	53	123	01010011	S	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S
84	54	124	01010100	T	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T
85	55	125	01010101	U	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U
86	56	126	01010110	V	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V
87	57	127	01010111	W	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W
88	58	130	01011000	X	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X
89	59	131	01011001	Y	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y
90	5A	132	01011010	Z	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z

Lowercase letters

Dec	Hex	Oct	Binary	Char	Name
97	61	141	01100001	a	LATIN SMALL LETTER A
98	62	142	01100010	b	LATIN SMALL LETTER B
99	63	143	01100011	c	LATIN SMALL LETTER C
100	64	144	01100100	d	LATIN SMALL LETTER D
101	65	145	01100101	e	LATIN SMALL LETTER E
102	66	146	01100110	f	LATIN SMALL LETTER F
103	67	147	01100111	g	LATIN SMALL LETTER G
104	68	150	01101000	h	LATIN SMALL LETTER H
105	69	151	01101001	i	LATIN SMALL LETTER I
106	6A	152	01101010	j	LATIN SMALL LETTER J
107	6B	153	01101011	k	LATIN SMALL LETTER K
108	6C	154	01101100	l	LATIN SMALL LETTER L
109	6D	155	01101101	m	LATIN SMALL LETTER M
110	6E	156	01101110	n	LATIN SMALL LETTER N
111	6F	157	01101111	o	LATIN SMALL LETTER O
112	70	160	01110000	p	LATIN SMALL LETTER P
113	71	161	01110001	q	LATIN SMALL LETTER Q
114	72	162	01110010	r	LATIN SMALL LETTER R
115	73	163	01110011	s	LATIN SMALL LETTER S
116	74	164	01110100	t	LATIN SMALL LETTER T
117	75	165	01110101	u	LATIN SMALL LETTER U
118	76	166	01110110	v	LATIN SMALL LETTER V
119	77	167	01110111	w	LATIN SMALL LETTER W
120	78	170	01111000	x	LATIN SMALL LETTER X
121	79	171	01111001	y	LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
122	7A	172	01111010	z	LATIN SMALL LETTER Z

128 · 95 + 33

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ASCII Table

Every ASCII character in decimal, hex, octal and binary — and a count of which control characters anything still uses.

What is the ASCII table?

ASCII assigns a number from 0 to 127 to each of 128 characters. Ninety-five of them are printable: the space, the digits, the two alphabets and the punctuation on a US keyboard. The other thirty-three print nothing at all. They are control characters, and they are the half of the table that every reference lists and nobody explains.

The split is not a matter of opinion. In the Unicode Character Database, those thirty-three have the literal name <control> and their real names live in a separate aliases file. This page is generated from both, so the names, the abbreviations and the alternate names are the standard's own rather than anyone's recollection.

Everything else on a modern computer is built on top of this. UTF-8 was designed so that its first 128 code points are exactly ASCII, byte for byte, which is why a plain English text file is simultaneously valid ASCII and valid UTF-8 and has been for decades.

How to use the ASCII table

Search however you happen to be thinking. Type 65, or 0x41, or the letter A itself, or carriage, or ESC. Decimal values, hex values, single characters, names, abbreviations and alternate names all match.
Read across for the encoding you need. Every row carries decimal, hex, octal and eight-bit binary, zero-padded so columns line up when you copy them out. The copy button gives you the character; for the controls, which have no character, it gives the hex escape.
Look at the control characters section first. It is the part with the surprising numbers, and it explains why a Windows line ending is two bytes rather than one.

Four of the thirty-three control characters are still used

The usual way to describe control characters is a list of names with no indication of which ones matter. Counting is more useful, so we counted. Across 9,760 text files and 127,721,432 characters — this entire website, its built HTML output, and twelve public-domain books — exactly four of the thirty-three appear at all.

Line feed occurs 434,063 times and carriage return 229,147. Tab appears three times and backspace twice, both of them inside prose describing them. The remaining twenty-nine do not occur once: not NUL, not the bell, not escape, not delete, not any of the ten transmission controls or the four device controls or the four information separators.

That is because they were instructions to a machine that no longer exists. A teletype was a typewriter on a wire, and the codes told it what to do physically: ring the bell, punch a tape, stop reading, start listening. Two of them survived because two of them moved paper. Carriage return slid the carriage back to the left margin; line feed rolled the platen up one line. A teletype needed both to start a new line, which is why a Windows line ending is still two bytes and why moving a file between operating systems can still ruin it.

The information separators are the saddest case. ASCII contains four characters — file, group, record and unit separator — designed precisely for the job that CSV does badly, with none of the quoting and escaping problems that make CSV parsing a minefield. They have been sitting at 0x1C to 0x1F since 1963 and essentially nothing uses them.

The standard does not agree with itself either

Nine ASCII characters carry more than one official name, and the table shows all of them. The most consequential is 0x0A, which the Unicode database lists as LINE FEED, NEW LINE and END OF LINE. Three names in one file for the character nobody can agree how to use is a fair summary of why line endings are a mess: the standard itself never settled whether it advances the paper or ends the line.

Tab is CHARACTER TABULATION and also HORIZONTAL TABULATION; 0x0B is LINE TABULATION and also VERTICAL TABULATION. Shift out and shift in are also LOCKING-SHIFT ONE and LOCKING-SHIFT ZERO, from a character-set switching scheme almost nobody encounters now.

One boundary case is worth knowing. Space is printable — the database names it SPACE, not <control> — yet it is the one printable character with an official abbreviation, SP, because it prints nothing visible and tables need something to show. It sits with the punctuation here for that reason.

Honest limits

The usage count is a measurement of one corpus, not a law. This site is TypeScript, HTML and English prose, so it says a great deal about what modern web source looks like and nothing about what a serial protocol or a point-of-sale terminal emits. Software that talks to a printer, a barcode scanner or a mainframe absolutely still uses these codes — that is where the device controls and transmission controls live on. What the number does establish is that they have vanished from ordinary text.

ASCII is also only the first 128 code points. Anything accented, anything in another script, every emoji and the vast majority of punctuation a real document uses are outside it. If a character is not on this page, ASCII simply has no number for it, and you want UTF-8 — which begins by agreeing with this table exactly and then keeps going.

Finally, the escape character is a special case worth flagging. It never appears in our corpus, but it is far from dead: it opens the terminal escape sequences that colour every command-line tool. It does not show up in stored text because it belongs to the wire between a program and a terminal rather than to files.

Why is it free?

Because it is a table of public facts. The page is static text with a search box that filters it in your browser — nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and no server is involved in reading it.

So there is no account, no sign-up and nothing held back. The underlying data is the Unicode Character Database, which anyone can download, and the script that turns it into this page is in the repository alongside it.