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Encoding Tool

Base64 Encoder / Decoder

Encode any text or file to Base64, or decode a Base64 string back to plain text instantly. This free online Base64 encoder supports both standard and URL-safe Base64 encoding formats (RFC 4648). Paste your text, drag and drop a file, or switch to decode mode to convert Base64 back to readable content. All processing happens entirely in your browser using native JavaScript APIs — nothing is ever uploaded to a server. Works offline, no signup required.

base64-encoder.tool
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Base64 encoding?
Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that converts binary data into a safe string of 64 printable ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /). It's used to transmit binary data over text-based systems like email (MIME attachments), HTTP headers, JSON payloads, CSS data: URIs, and HTML src attributes for images. It inflates data size by about 33%.
Does Base64 encrypt my data?
No. Base64 is encoding, not encryption. It is trivially reversible by anyone without needing any key or password. Never use Base64 to "hide" sensitive information. Use proper encryption algorithms like AES-256 for security-sensitive data.
Why does my Base64 output end with = or ==?
Base64 encodes every 3 bytes of input into exactly 4 characters. If the input length isn't divisible by 3, padding characters (=) are appended to make the output length a multiple of 4. One = means 1 padding byte was added; == means 2 bytes. Padding is sometimes stripped in URL-safe variants.
What is the difference between standard and URL-safe Base64?
Standard Base64 uses + and /, which are reserved characters in URLs. URL-safe Base64 (RFC 4648) replaces + with - and / with _, making it safe to include in URLs and filenames without percent-encoding. JWT tokens use URL-safe Base64 without padding.
How do I encode a file to Base64 in JavaScript?
Use a FileReader: const reader = new FileReader(); reader.onload = e => console.log(e.target.result); reader.readAsDataURL(file); — this gives you a full data URI including the MIME type prefix. To get just the Base64 string, split on the comma: e.target.result.split(',')[1].
Is my data safe when using this tool?
Yes. All encoding and decoding happens entirely in your browser using native JavaScript APIs (btoa, atob, and FileReader). No data, text, or files are ever uploaded to a server. The tool works fully offline once loaded.