What is Base64 used for?

Base64 lets binary or special data travel safely through systems built for plain text, such as email attachments, data URLs that embed images in web pages, and tokens. It represents any data using 64 safe characters, so nothing gets corrupted in transit.

Is Base64 a form of encryption?

No. Base64 is encoding, not encryption. It changes how data looks but provides no security at all, because anyone can decode it back to the original instantly. Never use Base64 to protect passwords or sensitive information; use proper encryption for that.

Does this handle special characters and emoji?

Yes. It encodes and decodes through UTF-8, so accented letters, macrons used in te reo Maori, emoji and other non-English characters survive the round trip intact. Many simpler tools mangle these, but this one preserves them correctly.

Base64 Encoder & Decoder

This tool encodes text into Base64 and decodes Base64 back into readable text, instantly and entirely in your browser. Base64 is a way of representing any data using only 64 safe characters: the letters A to Z in both cases, the digits 0 to 9, and the two symbols plus and slash, with the equals sign as padding. It exists because many systems were built to carry plain text but not arbitrary binary data, so encoding to Base64 lets you tuck binary or special content safely inside places that expect text. You see it constantly in software: email attachments, data URLs that embed images directly in web pages, JSON web tokens, API keys, and configuration files all lean on Base64. Decoding reverses the process to recover the original. With this tool you paste your content, choose whether to encode or decode, and the result appears immediately in the output box, ready to copy. Crucially, it handles full Unicode correctly by working through UTF-8, so accented characters, macrons used in te reo Maori, emoji and other non-English text survive the round trip intact, something many naive Base64 tools get wrong. Everything runs locally in your browser and nothing is uploaded, which matters when you are decoding tokens or keys you would rather not send to a server. Use it to inspect the contents of a token, to prepare a small data URL, to debug an API payload, or simply to learn how the encoding works. Remember that Base64 is encoding, not encryption: it scrambles the look of data but provides no security, since anyone can decode it.

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Your text or Base64

Mode

Result

Handles full Unicode via UTF-8. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Base64 is encoding, not encryption, and offers no security.

How it works

To encode, the text is first turned into UTF-8 bytes, then every three bytes are mapped to four Base64 characters from the 64-character alphabet, with padding added if needed. To decode, the reverse happens: the Base64 characters are turned back into bytes and then read as UTF-8 text, recovering the original including any accented or non-English characters.

Worked example

Encoding the phrase Kia ora, Aotearoa! produces the Base64 string S2lhIG9yYSwgQW90ZWFyb2Eh. Switching to decode mode and pasting that string back returns the original phrase exactly. Because the tool works through UTF-8, macrons and other special characters are preserved through both directions.

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