About the Base64 Encoder / Decoder
The Base64 encoder and decoder converts UTF-8 text into Base64 or decodes Base64 into UTF-8 text. The conversion runs entirely in your browser and is useful for inspecting text-oriented payloads and configuration values.
How to use this tool
Enter ordinary text and select Encode to create a Base64 string. To reverse the operation, paste valid Base64 and select Decode. The encoder converts text to UTF-8 bytes before encoding, so accented characters and emoji are handled consistently. When decoding data from a URL, first determine whether it uses the URL-safe Base64 alphabet, which replaces + and / and may omit padding.
How to read the result
Base64 represents binary data using printable ASCII characters and commonly ends with one or two equals signs as padding. Encoding increases size by roughly one third and does not conceal the content. A decoding error usually indicates invalid characters, incorrect padding, a URL-safe variant, or data that is not Base64. Successful byte decoding can still look incorrect when the original data was a file or used a character encoding other than UTF-8.
Limits and privacy
Base64 is an encoding, not encryption, hashing, compression, or access control. Anyone who receives the string can normally decode it. This interface is intended for text and displays decoded bytes as UTF-8; it is not a general binary file converter. Large inputs can consume browser memory. Both the source and result remain in the current tab and are not submitted to buffer.lol.
Common questions
- Is Base64 secure or encrypted?
- No. It is a reversible representation designed for transport through text systems. Do not use it to protect secrets.
- Why will a Base64 URL value not decode?
- Base64url uses - and _ instead of + and / and can omit = padding. It may need normalization before a standard Base64 decoder accepts it.