Multi-Format Encoder/Decoder
Encode and decode between Base64, Hex, and Binary formats with automatic format detection. Perfect for data transmission, API testing, and debugging.
Key Features
- Multiple Formats – Base64, Hexadecimal, and Binary
- Auto Format Detection – Automatically detects input format
- File Support – Encode/decode files up to 10MB
- URL-Safe Base64 – Standard and URL-safe encoding
- UTF-8 Support – Handle Unicode characters correctly
- Copy to Clipboard – One-click copying
- Download Results – Save encoded/decoded output
- Real-Time Conversion – Instant results as you type
- Browser-Based – All processing done locally
- No Data Storage – Nothing sent to servers
Supported Encoding Formats
Convert between Base64, Hexadecimal, and Binary formats seamlessly. The tool automatically detects your input format and provides all available output formats with one-click copying.
Base64 Encoding
Format: Standard & URL-Safe
Characters: 64 printable ASCII characters
Size: +33% overhead
Best for: Email attachments, data URIs, API authentication, JSON payloads
Example:SGVsbG8gV29ybGQh
Hexadecimal
Format: Base-16 encoding
Characters: 0-9, A-F
Size: 2× original size
Best for: Color codes, memory addresses, cryptographic hashes, debugging
Example:48656c6c6f20576f726c6421
Binary
Format: Base-2 encoding
Characters: 0, 1
Size: 8× original size
Best for: Low-level programming, bitwise operations, educational purposes
Example:01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
Common Use Cases
📧 Email Attachments
- MIME encoding – Attach files to emails
- Inline images – Embed images in HTML emails
- Text-only transmission – Send binary data via email
- RFC 2045 – Standard email encoding format
🌐 Web Development
- Data URIs – Embed images in CSS/HTML
- API authentication – Basic Auth headers
- JSON payloads – Encode binary data in JSON
- JWT tokens – Header and payload encoding
💾 Data Storage
- Database storage – Store binary in text fields
- Configuration files – Embed certificates, keys
- XML/JSON – Include binary data in text formats
- Backup files – Text-safe backup format
🔐 Security & Crypto
- SSH keys – Store public/private keys
- Certificates – PEM format SSL certificates
- Encrypted data – Text-safe ciphertext storage
- Tokens – Session tokens, API keys
Base64 Best Practices
✅ Best Practices
- Use for text transmission – Email, JSON, XML, URLs
- URL-safe for URLs – Use – and _ instead of + and /
- Validate input – Check for valid Base64 before decoding
- Handle UTF-8 – Encode text to UTF-8 bytes first
- Document encoding – Specify encoding in API docs
- Use standard libraries – Don’t implement yourself
❌ Avoid These
- Don’t use for encryption – Base64 is encoding, not encryption
- Don’t store large files – 33% size increase
- Avoid double encoding – Check if data is already encoded
- Don’t use for compression – Base64 increases size
- Don’t mix standards – Standard vs URL-safe in same system
- Don’t assume security – Anyone can decode Base64
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Base64 encryption?
No, Base64 is not encryption. It’s an encoding scheme that converts binary data to text. Anyone can decode Base64 – there’s no key or password. If you need security, encrypt your data first, then Base64 encode the encrypted result if needed for transmission.
Why does Base64 make data larger?
Base64 increases size by ~33%. It converts every 3 bytes (24 bits) of binary data into 4 ASCII characters. Since each Base64 character represents only 6 bits instead of 8, you need more characters to represent the same data. The padding character (=) adds even more overhead.
When should I use URL-safe Base64?
Use URL-safe Base64 for URLs and filenames. Standard Base64 uses + and / which have special meaning in URLs. URL-safe Base64 replaces these with – and _, making the encoded string safe to use in URLs, query parameters, and filenames without percent-encoding.
What’s the padding = character for?
Padding ensures output length is a multiple of 4. Since Base64 encodes 3 bytes into 4 characters, input that isn’t a multiple of 3 needs padding. One = means 2 input bytes, two = means 1 input byte. Some implementations (like URL-safe Base64) omit padding since it’s optional.
Can I use Base64 for sensitive data?
Only if encrypted first. Base64 provides zero security – it’s trivially reversible. For sensitive data, use proper encryption (AES, RSA) first, then Base64 encode if needed for text-based transmission. Never rely on Base64 for security or obfuscation.
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