Base64 Converter
Base64 is a way of converting binary data (or arbitrary text) into a string made up of only letters, digits, and the characters '+', '/' and '='. This matters because some systems — such as email (MIME attachments), data URIs in URLs, or text fields in JSON and XML — can't reliably handle raw binary bytes, but work fine with plain ASCII text. This tool handles both directions on one screen: type or paste plain text into the top field to see the Base64 output instantly, or paste a Base64 string into the bottom field to see the decoded, readable text instantly. Everything happens entirely client-side, using your browser's built-in `TextEncoder`/`btoa` and `atob`/`TextDecoder` functions — nothing is sent to our server.
What people use this for
Hello, Westcube! → SGVsbG8sIFdlc3RjdWJlIQ==[email protected] → aW5mb0B3ZXN0Y3ViZS5ubA==1234567890 → MTIzNDU2Nzg5MA==
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What is Base64 and what is it used for?
Base64 is an encoding scheme that converts any sequence of bytes into a string of only letters (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9), and the symbols '+', '/', with an optional '=' padding at the end. It's widely used to embed binary files (images, PDFs) inside text-based formats like HTML (data URIs), JSON, XML, email attachments (MIME), and configuration files — anywhere only plain text is accepted.
Is Base64 the same as encryption?
No, and this is a common misconception. Base64 is purely an encoding, not a security measure: it doesn't hide the content, it just restructures the format. Anyone can recover the original text in a fraction of a second — for example using the decode direction of this same tool, above. Never use Base64 to 'hide' sensitive data like passwords; for that you need real encryption (e.g. AES) or hashing (e.g. bcrypt/Argon2 for passwords).
Why is the Base64 output longer than my original text?
Base64 encodes every 3 bytes of input into 4 characters of output, an increase of roughly 33%. That's the price of compatibility with text-only systems: the output is larger, but contains only safe, printable ASCII characters that pass through anything — from URLs to email headers.
Why am I getting an error when decoding?
A valid Base64 string has a length that follows fixed padding rules (after removing any trailing '=' characters) and may only contain characters from the Base64 alphabet (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, '+', '/', '='). An error usually means your input isn't valid Base64 — for example because whitespace, line breaks inside the block, or non-Base64 characters got copied in by accident, or the string was truncated. Check that you pasted the complete, unmodified string.
I see garbled characters (□ or ?) in the decoded result — what's wrong?
This usually happens when the decoded bytes don't form a valid UTF-8 text sequence — for example because the Base64 string originally represented a binary file (an image, a compressed file) rather than plain text. This tool is built for decoding text; for binary files you need a tool that treats the output as bytes/a file rather than readable text.
Can I use this to read a JWT token or API payload?
Partially: a JWT consists of three dot-separated Base64url-encoded parts (header, payload, signature). You can paste the header and payload separately into this tool's decode direction to see the JSON content, though JWT strictly uses a URL-safe variant of Base64 (with '-' and '_' instead of '+' and '/', and no padding) — so copy only the middle segment and watch for any non-standard characters.
Is my text stored or logged anywhere?
No. Both encoding and decoding happen entirely locally in your browser using JavaScript's built-in `TextEncoder`/`btoa` and `atob`/`TextDecoder` functions. Nothing is sent to any Westcube server (or anyone else's), nothing is logged, and nothing is retained — even if your input contains sensitive information. Close the tab and your input is gone.