Is Base64 a form of encryption?

No. Base64 is an encoding scheme, not encryption. Anyone with the encoded string can decode it instantly without a key. For actual encryption, use the AES-256-GCM Encryptor tool on DevBench.

Why does Base64 output end with == or =?

Base64 encodes groups of 3 bytes into 4 characters. When the input length is not divisible by 3, one or two padding characters (=) are added to complete the final group to a multiple of 4.

What is the difference between Base64 and Base64URL?

Standard Base64 uses + and / characters which have special meaning in URLs. Base64URL replaces + with -, / with _, and removes padding (=). It is safe to use in URLs, query strings, and JWT tokens without percent-encoding.

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Base64 Decode

EncodingOffline-ready

Base64 Decode reverses Base64-encoded strings back to readable text or raw binary data entirely in your browser. Paste any Base64 or Base64URL string — including those with or without padding — and the decoded output appears instantly. Useful for decoding JWT payloads, API response tokens, email attachments, and data URIs. Nothing is sent to a server.

Input

Output

How to decode a Base64 string

Paste any Base64-encoded string into the input panel and this tool instantly decodes it back to plain text. It handles standard Base64 (with +/= characters) and URL-safe base64url (with -_ and no padding). UTF-8 multi-byte characters are decoded correctly.

Common places you'll encounter Base64

JWT tokens — the header and payload are base64url-encoded JSON objects
API responses that return file content as a Base64 string (GitHub Contents API, AWS S3 presigned responses)
SAML assertions and OAuth tokens in SSO flows
Email MIME attachments encoded as Base64 blocks
data: URIs for inline images in HTML

What is Base64?

Base64 converts binary data into ASCII text using a 64-character alphabet (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, +, /). It adds approximately 33% size overhead. URL-safe Base64 (Base64URL) replaces + with - and / with _ for use in URLs and JWTs. Base64 is an encoding scheme, NOT encryption — anyone can decode it.

Example

Input text: Hello, DevBench!
Base64 output: SGVsbG8sIERldkJlbmNoIQ==

Also useful: Base64 Encode, JWT Debugger, URL Decode.