An apparatus and method are disclosed for converting XML data to a destination encoding format. A receive module receives a request for bytes of XML data in a destination encoding format streamed from a source XML file. A transfer module transfers the requested bytes from a byte conversion buffer to a request buffer in response to the request and the byte conversion buffer having at least the requested bytes. A conversion module, in response to the byte conversion buffer lacking the requested quantity of bytes, transfers part of the requested bytes to the request buffer, fetches input bytes from an XML file, stores the bytes in a receive buffer, transfers the input bytes through a byte-to-character converter to a character conversion buffer, transfers the characters through a character-to-byte converter to the byte conversion buffer, and transfers enough bytes to the request buffer to satisfy the request.