Why is my Base64 longer than the original?

Base64 represents every 3 bytes as 4 characters, so the output is always about 33% larger. That's the cost of making the data safe to transmit as plain text.

What does URL-safe mean?

Standard Base64 uses + and / which have their own meaning in a URL, and = padding which can be stripped. The URL-safe variant swaps them for - and _ and drops the padding. JWTs use this variant.

Text to Base64

Base64 is a way of writing any text using only letters, numbers and a couple of symbols — which is what makes it safe to drop into a URL, an email header or a config file without anything mangling it. This encodes properly in UTF-8, so accented letters, Urdu, Arabic and emoji all survive; plenty of encoders quietly break on those.

Your text

URL-safe output

Uses - and _ instead of + and /, and drops the = padding. Required for JWTs and query strings.

Wrap at 76 characters

Result

Nothing is uploaded — this tool runs inside your browser, so your files never leave your device.

Help us improve

Why use this tool

Full Unicode support — accents, Urdu, Arabic and emoji all encode correctly
URL-safe option for JWTs and query strings
Optional line wrapping at 76 characters for email headers
Runs in your browser, so nothing you paste is uploaded

How it works

1Paste your text into the box above.
2Switch on URL-safe output if it's going into a link or a token.
3Copy the Base64, or download it as a .txt file.

Text to Base64 — frequently asked questions

Moving text or binary data through systems that only handle plain characters safely. Email attachments, data URLs in CSS, and the payload of a JWT are all Base64. It is not encryption — anyone can decode it instantly.

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