UTF-32 BE vs UTF-16 BE

UTF-32 BE

Unicode

Fixed-width encoding using 4 bytes per character. Big-endian byte order. Rarely used in practice.

IANA Name: UTF-32BE
Byte Width: 4–4 bytes
BOM: 00 00 FE FF
Introduced: 2003

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

Other Comparisons

UTF-32 BE Reference UTF-16 BE Reference All Encodings Swap comparison →