Base64 Encoder/Decoder
Easily encode text to Base64 or decode Base64 back to text
Advanced Options
Line wrapping adds line breaks for better readability. 76 characters is the standard for MIME (email) encoding.
UTF-8 supports all Unicode characters including international text and emojis.
Replaces '+' with '-', '/' with '_', and removes padding '=' characters for safe use in URLs.
About Base64 Encoding
Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation.
- Used to encode binary data for transfer in text-based formats
- Common in email attachments, data URIs, and API responses
- Increases the size of the data by approximately 33%
- Safe for transmission as it only uses printable ASCII characters
Encoding Options
- Standard Base64: Uses A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, / and = for padding
- URL-safe Base64: Uses A-Z, a-z, 0-9, -, _ and no padding, safe for URLs and filenames
- Line wrapping: Breaking long Base64 strings into multiple lines improves readability
- MIME standard: Uses 76 character line length as specified in RFC 2045
Character Sets
- UTF-8: Universal encoding that supports all languages and symbols
- ASCII: Basic 7-bit encoding for English text (0-127 character codes only)
- ISO-8859-1: Extended 8-bit encoding that supports Western European languages
Binary File Support
- Image Detection: Automatically detects and previews common image formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, WebP)
- Direct Download: Download decoded images directly to your device
- Binary Safety: Identifies non-displayable binary content to prevent corruption
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 when there is a need to encode binary data that needs to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with text.
Common Uses:
- Encoding binary data in JSON objects
- Embedding image data in CSS, HTML, or data URIs
- Encoding email attachments (MIME)
- Storing complex data in cookies or local storage
- Transmitting binary data over text-only protocols
- Converting international text to ASCII-safe characters
Character Encoding:
Different character sets are used to represent text before Base64 encoding:
- UTF-8: The default encoding that supports all international characters and emojis
- ASCII: Limited to basic English characters but provides smaller output for simple text
- ISO-8859-1: Supports European languages with accented characters
Advantages of Base64:
- Makes binary data safe for transmission in ASCII environments
- Handles ASCII control characters that might affect text protocols
- Widely supported in programming languages and web browsers
- Simple to implement and understand
Features:
- Text and File Support: Encode/decode both text input and files
- Binary File Support: Preview and download decoded images automatically
- Line Wrapping: Wrap output at 64 or 76 characters (MIME standard)
- URL-safe Encoding: Generate URL-friendly Base64 for use in web applications
- Character Set Options: Select between UTF-8, ASCII, and ISO-8859-1 encodings
- File Download: Save your Base64 output directly as a file
Note that Base64 encoding increases the size of the data by approximately 33% because it represents 3 bytes of data with 4 ASCII characters.