How do I spell a confirmation code with the NATO alphabet?

Type or paste the code into Text to spell out, with Text to phonetic selected. The Spoken form lists a word for each letter and digit, such as Alfa, Bravo, Niner. Press Copy to reuse it.

Why does the NATO alphabet say Tree, Fower and Niner for digits?

Those are the spoken digit forms in the NATO (ICAO) list used here, so 3, 4 and 9 are not confused over noisy radio or phone lines. The other digits read Zero, One, Two, Five, Six, Seven and Eight.

Can I turn Alfa Bravo Charlie back into letters?

Yes. Switch to Phonetic to text and paste the words. It reads NATO, LAPD and WWII words, plus variants like alpha, juliet and whisky. Unrecognised words pass through unchanged.

What other spelling alphabets are available besides NATO?

Spelling alphabet offers NATO (ICAO), LAPD (Adam, Boy, Charles) and WWII Able-Baker. The LAPD and WWII sets cover letters only, so digits are left as typed in those two.

Can it read the phonetic words aloud, and how do I slow it down?

If your browser supports speech synthesis, a Speak button reads the words with your device voice, and Stop ends it. The Slow option lowers the speech rate. Without browser support, the button is unavailable.

Yes. Every tool is free to use, with no account and no credit card. The work runs on your device rather than on our servers, which is what keeps it free to run.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. It runs in current mobile browsers on iOS and Android, with nothing to install.

📻

Free NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

Convert letters and numbers to the NATO (ICAO) spelling alphabet — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Also includes LAPD and WWII alphabets.

Runs in your browserNo sign-up, no pop-upsNo login requiredFree forever

Text to spell out

Spelling alphabet

Used by aviation, military, and international communication. Standard since 1956.

Spoken form

hHoteleEcholLimalLimaoOscar-(dash)wWhiskeyoOscarrRomeolLimadDelta

Hotel Echo Lima Lima Oscar (dash) Whiskey Oscar Romeo Lima Delta

Full NATO (ICAO) alphabet

0Zero

1One

2Two

3Tree

4Fower

5Five

6Six

7Seven

8Eight

9Niner

AAlfa

BBravo

CCharlie

DDelta

EEcho

FFoxtrot

GGolf

HHotel

IIndia

JJuliett

KKilo

LLima

MMike

NNovember

OOscar

PPapa

QQuebec

RRomeo

SSierra

TTango

UUniform

VVictor

WWhiskey

XX-ray

YYankee

ZZulu

💡 Use cases: clearly communicating confirmation codes over the phone, spelling out account numbers or codes in customer service, reading license plates over radio, pilot communications, and any voice channel where letter confusion (B vs D vs P) is costly. Do not read actual passwords or secrets aloud in untrusted environments.

Common uses

Spell Out Confirmation Codes on the PhoneAvoid letter confusion (B/D/P/T) when reading codes over the phone.
Read License Plates ClearlySpelling out a license plate (e.g., for a witness statement or rental return) over the phone or radio.
Communicate Passwords VerballySpell out one-time passwords or temporary credentials to colleagues over the phone.
Aviation and Pilot CommunicationNATO alphabet is the universal standard for aircraft callsigns and radio comms.
Amateur Radio CommunicationsHAM radio operators use phonetic alphabets for callsigns and message exchanges.

How It Works

Conversion runs entirely in your browser using a hardcoded lookup table — no server, no network request. Each character in your input is mapped to its NATO (ICAO), LAPD, or WWII-era spoken word instantly as you type, and the browser's built-in Web Speech API can read the result aloud.

1
Character-by-character lookup
Your input is split into individual Unicode code points (so emoji and accented letters are handled cleanly), each character is uppercased, and the first resulting code point is looked up against a static letter-to-word table — for example A → Alfa, 9 → Niner.
2
Three alphabet tables available
Three hardcoded record maps are bundled in this tool: the NATO/ICAO standard (Alfa, Bravo…), the LAPD phonetic alphabet (Adam, Boy…), and the WWII-era Able-Baker set (Able, Baker, Charlie…). Switching alphabets re-runs the same lookup against a different table instantly.
3
Fuzzy reverse decode
In decode mode the input is split on whitespace, each token is lowercased and stripped of punctuation, then matched against a merged reverse-lookup table that spans all three alphabets plus common spelling variants (alpha/alfa, whisky/whiskey, xray/x-ray). Unknown tokens pass through unchanged.
4
Optional text-to-speech via Web Speech API
The browser's built-in SpeechSynthesisUtterance API reads the phonetic words aloud, comma-joined so the browser inserts a natural pause between each word. A slow-rate toggle sets the speech rate to 0.7× for dictation over noisy channels.