Varint Encoder Decoder

Protobuf-Style Varint Encoding

Variable-length integers (varints) encode unsigned integers using 7 data bits per byte and a continuation bit. They appear throughout Protocol Buffers, gRPC, and other compact binary schemas. Smaller values use fewer bytes, which saves space in logs and on the wire.

Encode a decimal value to see its varint hex bytes, or paste hex to recover the integer. The decoder reads consecutive varints when multiple values are present in one buffer. For related binary work, use CBOR MessagePack Converter or Base64 Encoder.

Encoding Rules

Each output byte stores 7 bits of the value in little-endian bit order within the varint. If more bits remain, the high bit is set to 1; the final byte clears that bit. For example, decimal 300 encodes to bytes ac 02 because $300 = 0x12c$ splits into continuation groups.