Base64 Encoder / Decoder
Encode text to Base64 or decode Base64 back to plain text instantly.
Base64 encoder online converts plain text to Base64 format or decodes a Base64 string back to readable text. Enter the mode, paste your input, and the output appears instantly. Full UTF-8 support means Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and other Indian language scripts encode and decode correctly. The tool uses the browser's native btoa and atob functions with a UTF-8 wrapper. No text is sent to any server.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Base64 encoding?
- Base64 is a way to represent binary data as plain ASCII text. Every 3 bytes of input become 4 printable characters. The alphabet uses A-Z, a-z, 0-9, plus, and slash. Output is always about 33% larger than the input. The characters are safe in URLs, HTML attributes, and JSON strings without escaping.
- How do I decode Base64 online?
- Switch to Decode mode and paste your Base64 string. The decoded text appears immediately in the output panel. A red error message appears if the input is not valid Base64. Base64 strings end with one or two equals signs as padding characters.
- Does Base64 work with Hindi and Indian language text?
- Yes. UTF-8 encoding runs before Base64 conversion. UTF-8 covers all Unicode characters, including Devanagari, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, and every other Indian script. Standard Base64 without a UTF-8 wrapper fails for characters outside the Latin range.
- What is Base64 used for in web development?
- Base64 is used to embed images directly in HTML and CSS as data URIs, avoiding a separate HTTP request. Email attachments are Base64-encoded for transmission over SMTP. JWT tokens use Base64 URL encoding for the header and payload sections. API keys and credentials are often Base64-encoded in HTTP Basic Authentication headers.
- Is Base64 the same as encryption?
- No. Base64 is encoding, not encryption. Anyone with the Base64 string can decode it back to the original text in seconds. Do not use Base64 to protect sensitive data. Use it only to safely transport or embed binary data in text-based systems.
- Why does my Base64 output end with == ?
- Base64 works in groups of 3 bytes. When the input length is not a multiple of 3, padding characters (=) are added to complete the final group. One = means 1 byte of padding was added. Two == means 2 bytes were added. The padding makes the output length always a multiple of 4.
What is Base64 Encoder / Decoder?
Base64 encoder online converts plain text into Base64 format. It also decodes Base64 strings back to their original form. Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents data using 64 printable ASCII characters. It was designed to transport binary data safely over systems that handle only plain text.
The tool supports full UTF-8 encoding. Standard Base64 functions only handle ASCII characters correctly. Adding a UTF-8 wrapper allows encoding of any Unicode text. Supported scripts include Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, and Punjabi.
How does it work?
For encoding, the tool converts the input string to a UTF-8 byte sequence first. Each character in non-Latin scripts takes 2-4 bytes in UTF-8. The byte sequence is Base64-encoded using the browser's native btoa function. The output contains characters from A-Z, a-z, 0-9, plus, and slash.
For decoding, the reverse happens. Decoding runs atob on the Base64 string to recover the byte sequence. A UTF-8 decoder then converts the bytes back to a JavaScript string. The output is the original text with all characters intact.
When should you use Base64 Encoder?
Use it to embed small images as data URIs in CSS or HTML to eliminate HTTP requests. Use it to inspect JWT token payloads: the middle section of any JWT is Base64 URL-encoded JSON. Decode it to see the claims without a separate library.
Use it to encode configuration strings stored in environment variables or passed as command-line arguments. Some deployment platforms require secrets to be Base64-encoded in their configuration files. Use the decoder to verify that a Base64 value in a config file contains what you expect.
Tips to get the best results
- Switch to Decode mode before pasting a Base64 string. The tool will not auto-detect the direction of the operation.
- If decoding fails with an error, check for whitespace or line breaks in the pasted string. Copy the Base64 value as a single unbroken line.
- Base64 URL encoding replaces + with - and / with _ and removes padding. Decoding a JWT token segment requires replacing - with + and _ with / before pasting.
- For encoding binary files like images, use a dedicated file-to-Base64 converter. Text input only is supported here.