Is Base64 a form of encryption?

No. It is a reversible encoding with no key and no secret. Anyone who sees a Base64 string can decode it in seconds, so it offers no protection whatsoever for sensitive data.

Why does encoding make my data larger?

Because three bytes become four characters — an increase of about 33%. That overhead is the cost of restricting output to safe printable characters, which is why large files are rarely Base64-encoded in practice.

What are the = signs at the end?

Padding. Base64 works in three-byte groups, so when the input length is not a multiple of three, one or two = characters pad the final group. Some decoders accept input without padding, others reject it.

Why did my emoji break in another tool?

Because many naive implementations assume one byte per character and mangle multi-byte UTF-8 sequences. This tool converts to UTF-8 bytes before encoding, so accented characters and emoji round-trip correctly.

Encode & Decode

Base64 Encoder & Decoder

Base64 represents binary data using 64 printable characters, so it can travel safely through systems that only handle text — email bodies, JSON fields, data URIs and HTTP headers. This tool converts in both directions.

Free, no signupRuns entirely in your browser

Input

Operation

Text

Result

SGVsbG8gZnJvbSBWaWJlbGFuZA==

About

What the Base64 Encoder & Decoder does

It is worth being clear about what Base64 is not: it is an encoding, not encryption. Anyone can decode it instantly, as this page demonstrates. It provides zero confidentiality, so never use it to protect a password or a token from being read.

How it works

Using the Base64 Encoder & Decoder

1Paste your text or Base64 string.
2Choose whether to encode or decode.
3Encoding converts the text to UTF-8 bytes, then maps each group of three bytes to four Base64 characters.
4Decoding reverses that, reconstructing the original bytes and reading them back as UTF-8.
5Copy the result.

Use cases

What people use it for

Embedding a small image in CSS or HTML as a data URI
Decoding a Base64 field from an API response
Encoding credentials for HTTP Basic authentication
Moving binary data through a text-only field

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

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