Base64 Encoder / Decoder

Base64 is an encoding scheme that represents binary data using only 64 printable ASCII characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, plus two symbols). It exists because many systems that were designed to handle text cannot safely transmit raw binary data. Email protocols, URLs, HTML, JSON, and XML can all corrupt or misinterpret arbitrary bytes, so encoding that data as Base64 guarantees it survives the journey intact and can be decoded back to its original form on the other side.

You encounter Base64 constantly even if you never notice it. Email attachments are Base64-encoded before being sent. Small images are often embedded directly into CSS and HTML as Base64 data URIs to save a network request. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) used for authentication encode their header and payload in URL-safe Base64. API responses frequently wrap binary blobs — certificates, images, documents — as Base64 strings so they can travel inside a JSON field.

A crucial point of confusion worth clearing up: Base64 is encoding, not encryption. It provides no security whatsoever. Anyone can decode a Base64 string back to its original content instantly, exactly as this tool does. It is designed for safe transport and representation of data, never for hiding or protecting it. If you need to keep data secret, you need encryption (such as AES) — Base64 only changes the format, not the confidentiality.