Technology & Units
What Is Base64?
Base64 is an encoding scheme that converts binary data into a text string of 64 safe characters, used to transmit data through text-only channels.
Base64 encodes binary data — images, files, encrypted bytes — into a string built from 64 text-safe characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, + and /). It exists so binary content can travel through systems designed for text, such as email, JSON and data URLs.
Encoding inflates size by about 33%, and crucially, Base64 is not encryption: anyone can decode it instantly. It provides transport compatibility, not secrecy.