About the Base64 Encode / Decode
Base64 is a way of representing binary or text data using only 64 printable ASCII characters, which makes it safe to embed inside URLs, JSON payloads, email (MIME), and HTML/CSS (as data URIs). This tool lets you instantly encode any text into Base64 or decode an existing Base64 string back into readable text, entirely within your browser.
Developers use Base64 encoding constantly: embedding small images directly in CSS or HTML, encoding Basic Authentication credentials for HTTP headers, storing binary data inside JSON, or inspecting JWT tokens (which are themselves Base64url-encoded). This tool is useful for backend and frontend developers, students learning about encoding, and anyone debugging an API that returns Base64-encoded fields.
To use it, type or paste your text into the input field and the Base64 result appears instantly on the right as you type — there's no need to click a button for simple text. Use the direction toggle to switch between "Encode" and "Decode" mode. Unicode text (including Arabic, emoji, and accented characters) is fully supported thanks to UTF-8 aware encoding, so encoding "مرحبا" and decoding it back returns the exact original text.
For example, encoding the text "Hello, World!" produces "SGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkIQ==", and decoding that same string returns the original phrase exactly. If you paste something that isn't valid Base64 into decode mode — for instance, text containing invalid characters or incorrect padding — the tool shows a clear error instead of silently returning garbage.
A common mistake is confusing Base64 with encryption: Base64 provides no security or confidentiality at all, it is simply a reversible text representation, so never use it alone to "hide" sensitive data like passwords. Another frequent issue is mixing up standard Base64 and "Base64url" (used in JWTs and URLs), which replaces + and / with - and _ and often omits padding; this tool's decoder automatically detects and normalizes both variants so you don't have to convert manually.
Tip: when encoding for use inside a URL query string, remember that standard Base64 output can still contain characters like + and / that need additional URL-encoding — use this tool together with the URL Encode/Decode tool for that scenario. For embedding images as data URIs, use the dedicated Image to Base64 tool instead, since it correctly wraps the output with the right MIME type prefix.