Developer
Base64 Encoding Explained — What It Is and When to Use It
Understand Base64 encoding, how it works, and practical use cases. Encode and decode Base64 online with our free tool.
Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data using 64 printable ASCII characters. It's one of the most common encoding formats in web development.
How Base64 Works
Base64 converts every 3 bytes of binary data into 4 ASCII characters:
- Takes 8-bit binary data
- Splits into 6-bit chunks
- Maps each chunk to a character from the Base64 alphabet: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /
- Adds
=padding if input length isn't a multiple of 3
Common Use Cases
1. Data URLs
2. API Authentication
3. Email Attachments
4. JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Base64 vs Plain Text
| Feature | Base64 | Plain Text |
|---|---|---|
| Binary support | ✅ | ❌ |
| Size overhead | +33% | None |
| Readable | ❌ | ✅ |
| URL-safe | Needs encoding | ✅ |
Try It Online
Use our free Base64 encoder/decoder to encode or decode Base64 instantly — no installation needed.