diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 912a90c35..eb7b52cb2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- MySQL/MariaDB: `BIT(N)` columns now display as decimal numbers (`0`, `1`, `255`) instead of raw bytes that showed up as control characters like `^A` in the data grid. (#1272)
 - ClickHouse, BigQuery, CloudflareD1, LibSQL, Etcd, and DynamoDB: long-running queries no longer fail at 30 seconds when Settings > Query timeout is set higher. The HTTP transport now uses the configured query timeout plus a 30-second grace, so the server's `max_execution_time` (or equivalent) fires before the client gives up. Setting "No limit" raises the transport ceiling to 1 hour. (#1267)
 - AI Chat: DeepSeek V4 thinking content (`reasoning_content`) is now captured during streaming and passed back in subsequent turns, fixing 400 errors when using deepseek-v4-pro or deepseek-v4-flash.
 - MongoDB: the connection form now shows a Username field. It was hidden for databases where authentication is optional, so connections to auth-enabled servers saved with no credentials and every query failed with "requires authentication" even though the connection looked healthy.
diff --git a/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBFieldClassifier.swift b/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBFieldClassifier.swift
index 52a6f9fc6..f49a05151 100644
--- a/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBFieldClassifier.swift
+++ b/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBFieldClassifier.swift
@@ -11,12 +11,26 @@ internal enum MariaDBFieldClassifier {
     private static let blobOrStringTypes: Set<UInt32> = [249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254]
 
     static func isBinary(typeRaw: UInt32, charset: UInt32) -> Bool {
-        if typeRaw == bitType {
-            return true
-        }
         guard charset == binaryCharset else {
             return false
         }
         return blobOrStringTypes.contains(typeRaw)
     }
+
+    static func isBit(typeRaw: UInt32) -> Bool {
+        typeRaw == bitType
+    }
+
+    static func bitFieldToString(_ buffer: UnsafeRawBufferPointer) -> String {
+        guard !buffer.isEmpty else { return "0" }
+        var value: UInt64 = 0
+        for byte in buffer {
+            value = (value << 8) | UInt64(byte)
+        }
+        return String(value)
+    }
+
+    static func bitFieldToString(_ data: Data) -> String {
+        data.withUnsafeBytes { bitFieldToString($0) }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBPluginConnection.swift b/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBPluginConnection.swift
index c97e5d6aa..04f36644e 100644
--- a/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBPluginConnection.swift
+++ b/Plugins/MySQLDriverPlugin/MariaDBPluginConnection.swift
@@ -511,6 +511,8 @@ final class MariaDBPluginConnection: @unchecked Sendable {
 
                     if columnTypes[i] == 255 {
                         row.append(.text(GeometryWKBParser.parse(bufferPtr)))
+                    } else if MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBit(typeRaw: columnTypes[i]) {
+                        row.append(.text(MariaDBFieldClassifier.bitFieldToString(bufferPtr)))
                     } else if columnIsBinary[i] {
                         row.append(.bytes(Data(bufferPtr)))
                     } else if let str = String(bytes: bufferPtr, encoding: .utf8) {
@@ -710,7 +712,9 @@ final class MariaDBPluginConnection: @unchecked Sendable {
                     let length = Int(resultBinds[i].length?.pointee ?? 0)
                     let buffer = resultBuffers[i].assumingMemoryBound(to: UInt8.self)
                     let data = Data(bytes: buffer, count: length)
-                    if columnIsBinary[i] {
+                    if MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBit(typeRaw: columnTypes[i]) {
+                        row.append(.text(MariaDBFieldClassifier.bitFieldToString(data)))
+                    } else if columnIsBinary[i] {
                         row.append(.bytes(data))
                     } else if let str = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) {
                         row.append(.text(str))
@@ -956,6 +960,8 @@ final class MariaDBPluginConnection: @unchecked Sendable {
 
                             if columnTypes[i] == 255 {
                                 row.append(.text(GeometryWKBParser.parse(bufferPtr)))
+                            } else if MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBit(typeRaw: columnTypes[i]) {
+                                row.append(.text(MariaDBFieldClassifier.bitFieldToString(bufferPtr)))
                             } else if columnIsBinary[i] {
                                 row.append(.bytes(Data(bufferPtr)))
                             } else if let str = String(bytes: bufferPtr, encoding: .utf8) {
diff --git a/TableProTests/Plugins/MariaDBFieldClassifierTests.swift b/TableProTests/Plugins/MariaDBFieldClassifierTests.swift
index 4a045bb68..f81df717d 100644
--- a/TableProTests/Plugins/MariaDBFieldClassifierTests.swift
+++ b/TableProTests/Plugins/MariaDBFieldClassifierTests.swift
@@ -4,18 +4,68 @@
 //
 
 #if canImport(MySQLDriverPlugin)
+import Foundation
 import Testing
 
 @testable import MySQLDriverPlugin
 
 @Suite("MariaDBFieldClassifier")
 struct MariaDBFieldClassifierTests {
-    @Test("BIT routes to binary regardless of charset")
-    func bitIsBinary() {
-        #expect(MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBinary(typeRaw: 16, charset: 63))
-        #expect(MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBinary(typeRaw: 16, charset: 33))
+    @Test("BIT no longer routes to binary (it was rendering as raw control characters in the data grid)")
+    func bitIsNotBinary() {
+        #expect(!MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBinary(typeRaw: 16, charset: 63))
+        #expect(!MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBinary(typeRaw: 16, charset: 33))
     }
 
+    @Test("isBit identifies type code 16 and only type code 16")
+    func isBitMatchesOnlyBitType() {
+        #expect(MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBit(typeRaw: 16))
+        for typeRaw: UInt32 in [0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 15, 17, 245, 252, 255] {
+            #expect(!MariaDBFieldClassifier.isBit(typeRaw: typeRaw))
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test("bitFieldToString decodes a single byte big-endian")
+    func bitFieldSingleByte() {
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0x00]) == "0")
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0x01]) == "1")
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0x7f]) == "127")
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0xff]) == "255")
+    }
+
+    @Test("bitFieldToString decodes multi-byte values MSB-first")
+    func bitFieldMultiByte() {
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0x01, 0x00]) == "256")
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0xff, 0xff]) == "65535")
+        #expect(decodeBitField([0x12, 0x34]) == "4660")
+    }
+
+    @Test("bitFieldToString handles BIT(64) up to UInt64.max")
+    func bitField64Bits() {
+        let allOnes: [UInt8] = [0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff]
+        #expect(decodeBitField(allOnes) == "18446744073709551615")
+        let halfPlusOne: [UInt8] = [0x80, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00]
+        #expect(decodeBitField(halfPlusOne) == "9223372036854775808")
+    }
+
+    @Test("bitFieldToString on an empty buffer returns 0")
+    func bitFieldEmptyBuffer() {
+        #expect(decodeBitField([]) == "0")
+    }
+
+    @Test("Data overload matches the raw-pointer overload")
+    func bitFieldDataOverload() {
+        let bytes: [UInt8] = [0x01, 0xff]
+        let dataResult = MariaDBFieldClassifier.bitFieldToString(Data(bytes))
+        #expect(dataResult == "511")
+        #expect(dataResult == decodeBitField(bytes))
+    }
+
+    private func decodeBitField(_ bytes: [UInt8]) -> String {
+        bytes.withUnsafeBytes { MariaDBFieldClassifier.bitFieldToString($0) }
+    }
+
+
     @Test("BLOB family with binary charset routes to binary")
     func blobFamilyBinary() {
         for typeRaw: UInt32 in [249, 250, 251, 252] {