UTF-16 LE vs UTF-16 BE

UTF-16 LE

Unicode

Little-endian UTF-16. Used internally by Windows, Java, and .NET. Variable-width: 2 bytes for BMP characters, 4 bytes (surrogate pairs) for supplementary characters.

IANA Name: UTF-16LE
Byte Width: 2–4 bytes
BOM: FF FE
Introduced: 1996

UTF-16 BE

Unicode

Big-endian UTF-16. Network byte-order variant of UTF-16. Used in some network protocols and file formats.

IANA Name: UTF-16BE
Byte Width: 2–4 bytes
BOM: FE FF
Introduced: 1996

Both UTF-16 LE and UTF-16 BE are Unicode encodings — they represent the same 138,571 characters. The difference is in how the bytes are arranged. The table below shows how the first 128 codepoints (the ASCII range) are encoded in each.

ASCII Range (U+0000–U+007F)

Char	Codepoint	UTF-16 LE	UTF-16 BE	Same?
	U+0000	00 00	00 00	✓
	U+0001	01 00	00 01	≠
	U+0002	02 00	00 02	≠
	U+0003	03 00	00 03	≠
	U+0004	04 00	00 04	≠
	U+0005	05 00	00 05	≠
	U+0006	06 00	00 06	≠
	U+0007	07 00	00 07	≠
	U+0008	08 00	00 08	≠
	U+0009	09 00	00 09	≠
	U+000A	0A 00	00 0A	≠
	U+000B	0B 00	00 0B	≠
	U+000C	0C 00	00 0C	≠
	U+000D	0D 00	00 0D	≠
	U+000E	0E 00	00 0E	≠
	U+000F	0F 00	00 0F	≠
	U+0010	10 00	00 10	≠
	U+0011	11 00	00 11	≠
	U+0012	12 00	00 12	≠
	U+0013	13 00	00 13	≠
	U+0014	14 00	00 14	≠
	U+0015	15 00	00 15	≠
	U+0016	16 00	00 16	≠
	U+0017	17 00	00 17	≠
	U+0018	18 00	00 18	≠
	U+0019	19 00	00 19	≠
	U+001A	1A 00	00 1A	≠
	U+001B	1B 00	00 1B	≠
	U+001C	1C 00	00 1C	≠
	U+001D	1D 00	00 1D	≠
	U+001E	1E 00	00 1E	≠
	U+001F	1F 00	00 1F	≠
	U+0020	20 00	00 20	≠
!	U+0021	21 00	00 21	≠
"	U+0022	22 00	00 22	≠
#	U+0023	23 00	00 23	≠
$	U+0024	24 00	00 24	≠
%	U+0025	25 00	00 25	≠
&	U+0026	26 00	00 26	≠
'	U+0027	27 00	00 27	≠
(	U+0028	28 00	00 28	≠
)	U+0029	29 00	00 29	≠
*	U+002A	2A 00	00 2A	≠
+	U+002B	2B 00	00 2B	≠
,	U+002C	2C 00	00 2C	≠
-	U+002D	2D 00	00 2D	≠
.	U+002E	2E 00	00 2E	≠
/	U+002F	2F 00	00 2F	≠
0	U+0030	30 00	00 30	≠
1	U+0031	31 00	00 31	≠
2	U+0032	32 00	00 32	≠
3	U+0033	33 00	00 33	≠
4	U+0034	34 00	00 34	≠
5	U+0035	35 00	00 35	≠
6	U+0036	36 00	00 36	≠
7	U+0037	37 00	00 37	≠
8	U+0038	38 00	00 38	≠
9	U+0039	39 00	00 39	≠
:	U+003A	3A 00	00 3A	≠
;	U+003B	3B 00	00 3B	≠
<	U+003C	3C 00	00 3C	≠
=	U+003D	3D 00	00 3D	≠
>	U+003E	3E 00	00 3E	≠
?	U+003F	3F 00	00 3F	≠
@	U+0040	40 00	00 40	≠
A	U+0041	41 00	00 41	≠
B	U+0042	42 00	00 42	≠
C	U+0043	43 00	00 43	≠
D	U+0044	44 00	00 44	≠
E	U+0045	45 00	00 45	≠
F	U+0046	46 00	00 46	≠
G	U+0047	47 00	00 47	≠
H	U+0048	48 00	00 48	≠
I	U+0049	49 00	00 49	≠
J	U+004A	4A 00	00 4A	≠
K	U+004B	4B 00	00 4B	≠
L	U+004C	4C 00	00 4C	≠
M	U+004D	4D 00	00 4D	≠
N	U+004E	4E 00	00 4E	≠
O	U+004F	4F 00	00 4F	≠
P	U+0050	50 00	00 50	≠
Q	U+0051	51 00	00 51	≠
R	U+0052	52 00	00 52	≠
S	U+0053	53 00	00 53	≠
T	U+0054	54 00	00 54	≠
U	U+0055	55 00	00 55	≠
V	U+0056	56 00	00 56	≠
W	U+0057	57 00	00 57	≠
X	U+0058	58 00	00 58	≠
Y	U+0059	59 00	00 59	≠
Z	U+005A	5A 00	00 5A	≠
[	U+005B	5B 00	00 5B	≠
\	U+005C	5C 00	00 5C	≠
]	U+005D	5D 00	00 5D	≠
^	U+005E	5E 00	00 5E	≠
_	U+005F	5F 00	00 5F	≠
`	U+0060	60 00	00 60	≠
a	U+0061	61 00	00 61	≠
b	U+0062	62 00	00 62	≠
c	U+0063	63 00	00 63	≠
d	U+0064	64 00	00 64	≠
e	U+0065	65 00	00 65	≠
f	U+0066	66 00	00 66	≠
g	U+0067	67 00	00 67	≠
h	U+0068	68 00	00 68	≠
i	U+0069	69 00	00 69	≠
j	U+006A	6A 00	00 6A	≠
k	U+006B	6B 00	00 6B	≠
l	U+006C	6C 00	00 6C	≠
m	U+006D	6D 00	00 6D	≠
n	U+006E	6E 00	00 6E	≠
o	U+006F	6F 00	00 6F	≠
p	U+0070	70 00	00 70	≠
q	U+0071	71 00	00 71	≠
r	U+0072	72 00	00 72	≠
s	U+0073	73 00	00 73	≠
t	U+0074	74 00	00 74	≠
u	U+0075	75 00	00 75	≠
v	U+0076	76 00	00 76	≠
w	U+0077	77 00	00 77	≠
x	U+0078	78 00	00 78	≠
y	U+0079	79 00	00 79	≠
z	U+007A	7A 00	00 7A	≠
{	U+007B	7B 00	00 7B	≠
\|	U+007C	7C 00	00 7C	≠
}	U+007D	7D 00	00 7D	≠
~	U+007E	7E 00	00 7E	≠
	U+007F	7F 00	00 7F	≠

Other Comparisons

UTF-16 LE Reference UTF-16 BE Reference All Encodings Swap comparison →