Base64 Encoder & Decoder
Encode text to Base64 format or decode Base64 encoded strings back to original text. Supports UTF-8 character encoding.
Result
Your Base64 result will appear here
About Base64 Encoding
Base64 is a group of binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation. It is commonly used for encoding data that needs to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with text.
Common Uses of Base64
- Embedding images in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Transferring binary data over text-based protocols like HTTP
- Storing complex data in XML or JSON which have restrictions on certain characters
- Email attachments (as specified in MIME)
- Basic authentication credentials
How Base64 Works
Base64 encoding works by breaking the input data into 6-bit chunks, each of which is represented by a character from a predefined set of 64 characters. The resulting text is approximately 33% longer than the original data.
Important Notes
- Base64 is an encoding scheme, not encryption - it does not provide security
- Encoded data is approximately 33% larger than the original
- Base64 uses a 64-character set: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, '+', and '/'
- '=' characters are used for padding at the end of the encoded string