Text to Base64 Converter

What Is Base64 Encoding?

Base64 is an encoding scheme that converts binary data into a string of 64 ASCII-safe characters — A–Z, a–z, 0–9, + and /. It was invented to solve a fundamental problem: many protocols (email, HTTP headers, XML, JSON) are designed to carry text, but code, images, and binary files are not text. Base64 bridges that gap by representing any binary data as printable characters.

When to Use Base64

Base64 vs Other Encodings

Base64 Code Examples — 9 Languages

Copy-paste implementations for the most common programming languages. All examples are UTF-8 safe.

// Encode (UTF-8 safe)
const encode = (str) =>
  btoa(encodeURIComponent(str).replace(/%([0-9A-F]{2})/g,
    (_, p1) => String.fromCharCode(parseInt(p1, 16))));

// Decode (UTF-8 safe)
const decode = (b64) =>
  decodeURIComponent(atob(b64).split('')
    .map(c => '%' + c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16).padStart(2,'0')).join(''));

console.log(encode('Hello 👋'));  // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==
console.log(decode('SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==')); // Hello 👋

import base64

# Encode
text = "Hello 👋"
encoded = base64.b64encode(text.encode('utf-8')).decode('ascii')
print(encoded)  # SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

# Decode
decoded = base64.b64decode(encoded).decode('utf-8')
print(decoded)  # Hello 👋

<?php
// Encode
$text = "Hello 👋";
$encoded = base64_encode($text);
echo $encoded; // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

// Decode
$decoded = base64_decode($encoded);
echo $decoded; // Hello 👋

using System;
using System.Text;

// Encode
var text = "Hello 👋";
var encoded = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text));
Console.WriteLine(encoded); // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

// Decode
var decoded = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(encoded));
Console.WriteLine(decoded); // Hello 👋

import java.util.Base64;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

// Encode
String text = "Hello 👋";
String encoded = Base64.getEncoder()
    .encodeToString(text.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
System.out.println(encoded); // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

// Decode
String decoded = new String(
    Base64.getDecoder().decode(encoded), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
System.out.println(decoded); // Hello 👋

import (
    "encoding/base64"
    "fmt"
)

// Encode
text := "Hello 👋"
encoded := base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString([]byte(text))
fmt.Println(encoded) // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

// Decode
decoded, _ := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(encoded)
fmt.Println(string(decoded)) // Hello 👋

require 'base64'

# Encode
text = "Hello 👋"
encoded = Base64.strict_encode64(text)
puts encoded # SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

# Decode
decoded = Base64.decode64(encoded)
puts decoded # Hello 👋

use base64::{Engine, engine::general_purpose};

// Encode
let text = "Hello 👋";
let encoded = general_purpose::STANDARD.encode(text.as_bytes());
println!("{}", encoded); // SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

// Decode
let decoded_bytes = general_purpose::STANDARD.decode(&encoded).unwrap();
let decoded = String::from_utf8(decoded_bytes).unwrap();
println!("{}", decoded); // Hello 👋

# Encode
echo -n "Hello 👋" | base64
# Output: SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==

# Decode
echo "SGVsbG8g8J+Rsw==" | base64 --decode
# Output: Hello 👋

# File encode
base64 -i image.png -o image.b64

# File decode
base64 -d image.b64 -o image.png

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Base64 encoding?

Base64 is an encoding scheme that converts binary data into a string of 64 ASCII characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, +, /). It was designed to safely transmit binary data over channels built for text — such as email (MIME), HTTP headers, and JSON APIs.

Is Base64 a form of encryption?

No. Base64 is encoding, not encryption. Anyone can decode a Base64 string without a key. It provides no confidentiality or security — it only changes the format of the data. For security, use AES, RSA, or another encryption algorithm.

Does Base64 increase data size?

Yes — by approximately 33%. Base64 encodes every 3 bytes (24 bits) of binary data as 4 ASCII characters (32 bits). So a 3 KB file becomes roughly 4 KB when Base64 encoded. This overhead is the trade-off for text-safe transport.

What is URL-safe Base64?

Standard Base64 uses + and / which have special meaning in URLs. URL-safe Base64 (Base64url) replaces + with - and / with _ so the string can be used in URLs and filenames without percent-encoding. Common in JWTs and OAuth tokens.

What is a Base64 Data URL?

A Data URL embeds file content directly in an HTML or CSS file using Base64: data:[mediatype];base64,[encoded data]. Example: <img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0K...">. This eliminates an HTTP request for small images.

How does this tool handle emojis and special characters?

The tool uses a UTF-8-safe encoding method. Before encoding, multi-byte characters (emojis, accented letters, CJK characters) are properly encoded to their UTF-8 byte sequences so the Base64 output accurately represents the original text and decodes back perfectly.

What is the Base64 alphabet?

The 64 characters are: A–Z (26), a–z (26), 0–9 (10), + (1), / (1) = 64. The = character is used as padding at the end if the input length is not a multiple of 3 bytes.

When should I use Base64 vs hex encoding?

Use Base64 when you need compact text-safe binary representation (images in HTML, API payloads, JWTs). Use hex when human readability for developers matters more than size (debugging binary data, hash values, memory dumps). Base64 is ~33% larger than binary; hex is ~100% larger.

Can I encode JSON with Base64?

Yes. Encoding a JSON string to Base64 is common in APIs for safely passing structured data in headers, query parameters, or systems that don't support raw JSON. Decode the Base64 string first, then parse the JSON.

What does the = padding at the end mean?

Base64 works in groups of 3 bytes. If the input length is not a multiple of 3, = padding characters are added to make the output a multiple of 4 characters. One = means 1 padding byte was needed; == means 2.