// format mac addresses between colon, dash, dot, and plain styles
Convert MAC addresses between colon, dash, dot, and plain styles instantly. Validate, batch-convert, and copy clean MAC address output in one click.
Ready to convert
Paste MAC addresses and click ConvertEnter one MAC address per line. Any separator format is accepted.
Select All Formats, or pick Colon, Dash, Dot, or Plain style.
Click Convert, then copy individual results or use Copy All.
A MAC address (Media Access Control address) is a unique 48-bit hardware identifier assigned to network interfaces. Different operating systems and vendors write them differently — Windows uses dashes, Linux uses colons, Cisco uses dots. This tool normalizes any format instantly.
All common formats are accepted as input: colon-separated (AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF), dash-separated (AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF), Cisco dot notation (AABB.CCDD.EEFF), and plain hex (AABBCCDDEEFF). The tool auto-detects the format.
Yes. Paste one MAC address per line and the tool will convert all of them simultaneously. Mixed formats in the same batch are fully supported.
Cisco uses groups of four hex digits separated by dots: AABB.CCDD.EEFF. This is common in Cisco IOS configuration and show commands for switch and router interfaces.
Yes. Any address that doesn't resolve to exactly 12 valid hexadecimal characters is flagged as invalid, and the specific line number is reported with an error message.
The output is always uppercase. Most networking equipment and standards use uppercase hex digits for MAC addresses, though the format is technically case-insensitive.
This tool processes MAC addresses via a lightweight PHP backend on our servers. No data is stored, logged, or shared. The conversion is ephemeral and results are discarded immediately.
A MAC address formatter is a utility that converts hardware addresses between the various notation styles used across operating systems, networking equipment, and configuration files. Whether you're writing firewall rules, configuring Wi-Fi access control lists, or parsing network scan output, dealing with inconsistent MAC address formats is a constant headache. This tool eliminates that friction.
A MAC (Media Access Control) address is a 48-bit identifier — 6 bytes, 12 hex characters — permanently assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) by the manufacturer. It operates at Layer 2 of the OSI model and is essential for local network communication.
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MAC addresses are written in four common notations depending on the platform:
AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF) — The standard on Linux, macOS, Android, and most Unix-based systems. The ip link and ifconfig commands output this style.AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF) — Preferred by Windows. The ipconfig /all command and Windows Device Manager display MAC addresses with dashes.AABB.CCDD.EEFF) — Used in Cisco IOS. Instead of splitting every byte, Cisco groups four hex digits separated by dots, giving three groups total.AABBCCDDEEFF) — No separators at all. Common in database storage, some programming libraries, and vendor-specific tools that prefer compact storage.Network engineers frequently encounter all four formats within the same workflow. A security audit might export MAC addresses from a Linux server in colon notation, while the Cisco switch configuration expects dot notation, and the DHCP reservation database stores them as plain hex strings. Manual reformatting is slow and error-prone at scale.
Common scenarios where MAC address conversion is needed include:
The first three bytes (24 bits) of a MAC address are the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI), assigned by the IEEE to manufacturers. The last three bytes are assigned by the manufacturer to individual devices. For example, an address beginning with 00:50:56 indicates a VMware virtual machine, while DC:A6:32 is a Raspberry Pi 4.
This structure is why MAC addresses are used for device fingerprinting and vendor identification, though modern operating systems increasingly use MAC address randomization to protect user privacy on Wi-Fi networks.
When working with network scans, inventory exports, or ARP table dumps, you may have hundreds or thousands of MAC addresses to normalize. This tool accepts multi-line input, processing each address independently. Invalid addresses are flagged per-line so you can identify and fix source data issues without losing valid conversions.
For very large datasets, consider scripting the conversion using tools like sed, awk, or Python's re module. However, for ad-hoc conversions during troubleshooting, a browser-based tool is often the fastest option.
Not every string that looks like a MAC address is valid. Common issues include:
G, H, or special symbols)FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) that are technically valid but often unintentional in config filesThis formatter validates each input line and reports errors clearly, so you can clean up source data before applying it to production network equipment.
For testing network configuration tools, these well-known MAC addresses are commonly used in documentation and tutorials:
00:00:00:00:00:00 — Null/zero address, used in some protocolsFF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF — Broadcast address01:00:5E:00:00:01 — IPv4 multicast base address33:33:00:00:00:01 — IPv6 all-nodes multicast