Question 1

What is Base64 encoding?

Accepted Answer

Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data in an ASCII string format. It is commonly used to encode data in URLs, HTTP headers, email attachments, and data URIs.

Question 2

Is Base64 encryption?

Accepted Answer

No. Base64 is encoding, not encryption. It does not provide any security. Anyone can decode a Base64 string — it is simply a way to represent binary data as text. Do not use Base64 to protect sensitive data.

Question 3

Why does Base64 output end with = or ==?

Accepted Answer

The equals signs (=) are padding characters. Base64 encodes 3 bytes into 4 characters. If the input length is not divisible by 3, one or two padding characters are added to make the output a multiple of 4.

Question 4

What is URL-safe Base64?

Accepted Answer

Standard Base64 uses + and / characters, which have special meanings in URLs. URL-safe Base64 replaces + with - and / with _. This tool uses standard Base64 encoding.

Question 5

Can I encode non-ASCII characters?

Accepted Answer

Yes. This tool uses UTF-8 encoding under the hood, so it correctly handles Unicode characters, including emoji and non-Latin scripts.

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