Traditional ↔ Simplified Chinese Converter

Paste Chinese text and convert it between Simplified and Traditional in either direction — instantly, free, no signup. It's context-aware, so tricky characters convert correctly.

Why "context-aware" matters

Simplified → Traditional is the hard direction, because one simplified character can map to several traditional ones depending on meaning:

• 发 → 發 (to send) or 髮 (hair): 头发 → 頭髮, 发现 → 發現
• 里 → 裡/裏 (inside) or 里 (a unit): 里面 → 裏面
• 干 → 乾 (dry), 幹 (to do), or 干 (to interfere): 干净 → 乾淨
• 后 → 後 (after) or 后 (queen): 皇后 stays 皇后, 以后 → 以後

A naive character-by-character converter gets these wrong. This tool uses the OpenCC phrase data to convert whole words, so the common cases come out right.

Both directions, one click

• Simplified → Traditional for reading material from Taiwan, Hong Kong, or classical texts.
• Traditional → Simplified for mainland material, textbooks, and most apps.
• Use ⇅ Swap to flip the converted text back through the other direction.

Which should you learn?

Most learners start with Simplified (mainland China, Singapore, most textbooks and apps). Traditional is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and for calligraphy and classical study. Reading both eventually becomes useful — and once you can read one, the other is much easier than it looks.

Read either script with support

Converting characters is one step; understanding them is another. In Pinyora, tap any word for pinyin, meaning, and audio, and read graded stories at your level.

Open Pinyora and start reading.

Frequently asked questions

Is it accurate? It uses OpenCC's conversion data with whole-word (phrase) handling, so ambiguous characters convert correctly in common contexts. Very rare words or names may need a manual check.

Does it convert Taiwan vs. Hong Kong variants? It produces standard Traditional characters. Region-specific variants (e.g. Taiwan idioms) aren't applied.

Is my text uploaded? No — conversion runs entirely in your browser.