What is Base64?

Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation. It is commonly used when binary data needs to be stored and transferred over media designed to handle text.

Common uses include:

• Embedding images directly into HTML/CSS/JSON (data URIs)
• Sending binary data in emails (MIME)
• Transferring data that might otherwise be altered by text processing systems
• Storing complex data in XML or JSON