Base64 Encoder & Decoder

Convert text in either direction

Enter ordinary text and choose Encode text, or paste standard Base64 and choose Decode Base64. Encoding uses UTF-8 bytes, so accented letters and emoji are handled deliberately instead of being treated as single-byte Latin characters.

What Base64 represents

Base64 turns bytes into a limited alphabet of letters, numbers, plus, slash, and optional equals-sign padding. It is useful when binary or arbitrary byte data must travel through a text-oriented field. The encoding expands data by roughly one third and provides no secrecy, integrity, compression, or authentication.

Worked example

Encoding the UTF-8 text Hello! produces SGVsbG8h. Decoding that value returns the original six characters. Encoding café first converts the accented letter into its UTF-8 byte sequence, so the result differs from an older single-byte character encoding even though the displayed word looks identical.

Standard versus URL-safe Base64

This page accepts standard Base64, which uses plus and slash. JWTs and some URL formats use Base64url, where those characters become hyphen and underscore and padding is often omitted. Use the JWT Decoder for compact JSON Web Tokens. Do not silently swap alphabets when a protocol specifies one form exactly.

Text is not every possible byte sequence

Decoded bytes must form valid UTF-8 for this page to display them as text. A Base64-encoded image, ZIP archive, executable, or document may be perfectly valid Base64 yet fail text decoding. A file-oriented decoder would need to preserve arbitrary bytes and choose a safe download type instead.

Privacy and limitations

Conversion runs locally and does not send input to Awesome Tools. Browser memory limits practical input size. Whitespace inside Base64 input is ignored, but malformed padding and invalid alphabet characters are rejected. The tool does not detect the original file type, calculate checksums, encrypt secrets, or verify whether decoded text is safe to use in HTML, commands, or configuration.

Base64 FAQ

Is Base64 encryption?

No. Anyone can decode it without a password or key.

Why is encoded text longer?

Four Base64 characters normally represent three source bytes, plus possible padding.

Can I decode an image here?

No. This page intentionally returns valid UTF-8 text, not binary files.