About Data Encoding Detector
The Magic operation attempts to detect various properties of the input data and suggests which operations could help to make more sense of it. Options Depth: If an operation appears to match the data, it will be run and the result will be analysed further. This argument controls the maximum number of levels of recursion. Intensive mode: When this is turned on, various operations like XOR, bit rotates, and character encodings are brute-forced to attempt to detect valid data underneath. To improve performance, only the first 100 bytes of the data is brute-forced. Extensive language support: At each stage, the relative byte frequencies of the data will be compared to average frequencies for a number of languages. The default set consists of ~40 of the most commonly used languages on the Internet. The extensive list consists of 284 languages and can result in many languages matching the data if their byte frequencies are similar. Optionally enter a regular expression to match a string you expect to find to filter results (crib).
Input: binary bytes (text input uses UTF-8; a file retains its original bytes). Output: structured JSON.
Format reference: Magic background and specification
Example
Use “Try example” to load this public sample and its settings, then run it.
Settings used in this example
| Parameter | Example value | Input and choices |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | 3 | Number |
| Intensive mode | false | On or off |
| Extensive language support | false | On or off |
| Crib (known plaintext string or regex) | "" | Text |
Input
41 42 43 44 45
Result
The result is structured data. Inspect its fields in the output.
Suggestions need confirmation
Magic uses signatures, byte frequencies and heuristics. Several interpretations can fit the same input. Validate a suggestion against the expected file format or protocol before relying on it.
Parameters
| Parameter | Default value | Input and choices |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | 3 | Number |
| Intensive mode | false | On or off |
| Extensive language support | false | On or off |
| Crib (known plaintext string or regex) | "" | Text |
Before interpreting the result
File signatures and heuristics are clues, not definitive classification. Retain an original copy and compare exact bytes when investigating a file. A parser failure can also indicate truncated or unsupported data.
How to use this page
- Paste your input or open a local file.
- Adjust tool options if needed, then choose Run tool.
- Copy the result or download the original output bytes.
Inputs and results are not added to the public catalogue or saved in the URL. Processing happens in your browser; HTTP Request and DNS over HTTPS send the requests you explicitly run. Files up to 128 MiB can be opened; decompression and image tools may have smaller processing limits. Large results have a shortened preview. Text and HTML downloads use UTF-8; binary downloads preserve output bytes. Pasted text follows browser newline handling; open a file when exact input bytes matter.