Free Simplified ↔ Traditional Chinese Converter

Worked example

The box opens with a sample sentence: 我们用软件打开文件夹，鼠标点击后，网络就连上了。头发和发展的“发”在繁体里是两个字。 With "To Traditional" and "Standard (OpenCC)" it becomes 我們用軟件打開文件夾，鼠標點擊後，網絡就連上了。頭髮和發展的“發”在繁體裏是兩個字。 and the counter reads "19 characters changed". Switch the standard to "Taiwan, with Taiwan words" and the same sentence reads 我們用軟體開啟資料夾，滑鼠點選後，網路就連上了。頭髮和發展的“發”在繁體裡是兩個字。 with "24 characters changed". In both, 发 comes out as 髮 in 头发 and as 發 in 发展, because whole words are matched before single characters.

Which settings to use, and the limits

• Pick the standard that matches your readers. "To Traditional" offers four choices under "Standard": "Standard (OpenCC)", "Taiwan, with Taiwan words", "Taiwan, characters only" and "Hong Kong". The standards differ in a few characters: 里 becomes 裏 in Standard and Hong Kong but 裡 in both Taiwan choices, 床 becomes 牀 in Standard and Hong Kong but stays 床 in the Taiwan ones, and 着 stays 着 in Standard and Hong Kong but becomes 著 in Taiwan. Only "Taiwan, with Taiwan words" also changes vocabulary, for example 软件 to 軟體 and 鼠标 to 滑鼠. "Hong Kong" changes characters, not words.
• Say where Traditional text comes from when going to Simplified. With "To Simplified" the menu is called "Text is from" and has "Standard (OpenCC)", "Taiwan, with Taiwan words" and "Hong Kong" ("Taiwan, characters only" is not offered). Text written in Taiwan words converts fully only with the Taiwan choice: 軟體 becomes 软件 there, but 软体 under Standard. Choose Standard for Traditional text that does not use Taiwan vocabulary.
• Watch the counter, the highlights and the direction hint. The result updates as you type. Changed characters are highlighted while "Highlight changes" is ticked, and the counter shows how many characters changed. If you paste Traditional text while "To Traditional" is selected, the page says "This text already looks like Traditional Chinese." and offers a "To Simplified" button. "Use result as input" moves the result into the box and flips the direction, so you can check a round trip. "Download .txt" saves traditional.txt or simplified.txt.
• Use "Convert a whole file" for subtitles and documents. Drop one file of up to 20 MB: TXT, SRT, VTT, LRC, ASS, SSA, Markdown, CSV, TSV, HTML, HTM, JSON or XML. It is converted with the settings above and saved next to the original name with -trad, -tw, -hk or -simp added before the extension, so movie.srt becomes movie-tw.srt with a Taiwan choice. Timecodes, numbers and Latin text are not touched. Only one file is taken at a time.
• Save text files as UTF-8 first. Files are read as UTF-8 when they are UTF-8, and a byte-order mark at the start is dropped. A file that is not UTF-8 is read as GBK when converting to Traditional and as Big5 when converting to Simplified, the usual older encodings for each. Every Chinese character in the file is converted, including any inside HTML attributes or JSON keys. When the file has up to 20,000 characters, its original text is also shown in the "Chinese text" box.
• Expect one dictionary download, then everything stays in the page. The first conversion downloads the dictionary file for the chosen direction: about 1.1 MB for "To Traditional" and about 0.1 MB for "To Simplified". Switching direction loads the other one. After that the conversion runs in your browser, and the text you type and the files you drop are not uploaded.

Common problems and how to fix them

It says "The conversion dictionary could not be loaded. Check your connection and try again."

The dictionary file did not download, so nothing can be converted. Check your connection and press "Try again". A failed download is not remembered, so the next try asks for the file again. If it only fails in one direction, switch to the other and back.

It says "movie.srt is larger than 20 MB. Split it into smaller files." (with your file name).

The file is over 20 MB, the limit for one file here, so it is not read at all. Split it into smaller pieces, for example a long subtitle or log file by episode or by month, convert each, and join them again afterwards.

It says "movie.srt could not be converted. Is it a UTF-8 text file?" (with your file name).

The file could not be read as text. Open it in a text editor and save a copy as UTF-8, then drop that copy. The same message also appears if the dictionary could not be downloaded just then, so check your connection if the file is fine. A GBK or Big5 file is read in its own encoding; if one still looks garbled, saving a UTF-8 copy is the same cure.

It says "report.docx is a DOCX file, which this tool can't open."

Word, PDF and other binary formats are not read, only plain text formats. Open the document, copy the text, and paste it into the "Chinese text" box. For subtitles use the .srt, .vtt, .lrc or .ass file itself. The same kind of message appears for any file the page recognises as another format, and "File type not supported" appears when the type is not recognised at all.

A word came out in the wrong form.

Conversion follows the dictionary, not the meaning, so the page warns that names and words with more than one correct form may need checking. If a form is wrong for your readers, try another standard: 面条 becomes 麪條 under Standard and Hong Kong but 麵條 under the Taiwan choices. When converting to Simplified, "Taiwan, with Taiwan words" also rewrites Taiwan vocabulary, and it turns 程序 into 进程, so use Standard for text that is not from Taiwan.

How it compares

A plain character-by-character table cannot tell 头发 (hair) from 发展 (development), because one Simplified 发 maps to both 髮 and 發. This tool matches whole dictionary words first, using the OpenCC dictionaries, and only falls back to single characters, which is why the sample gives 頭髮和發展. It is still a dictionary and not a reader of meaning, so names and rare words can come out wrong. It converts Chinese characters only: it does not turn pinyin into characters, does not open Word or PDF files, and its Hong Kong choice changes characters but not vocabulary. A word processor with built-in conversion is more convenient inside a Word document; this page is quicker for pasted text and subtitle files, and it makes the standard an explicit choice.