How do you turn text or a file into Base64?

How it works

Base64 writes any data, including a picture or a file, using only 64 safe characters: the letters, the digits, plus and slash. That lets binary data travel through places that only handle text, such as email, JSON or a web address. It is a way of writing data, not a way of hiding it: anyone can decode it.

The data is cut into groups of three bytes (24 bits), and each group is written as four characters of six bits each. So Base64 is a third longer than the original, and a final group of one or two bytes is topped up with = signs. For example the text Man becomes TWFu, and f becomes Zg== (RFC 4648). Text is first turned into bytes as UTF-8, so every language and emoji works.

The URL-safe variant swaps + and / for - and _, so the result needs no escaping in an address or file name, and often leaves out the = padding. When decoding, this tool reads both kinds, ignores spaces and line breaks, and rejects anything else. Files up to 5 MB are read and converted in your browser; nothing is uploaded.