2026-04-20 · 1 min de lecture
Understanding Base64 Encoding and Its Use Cases
How Base64 works and when to use it for binary-to-text conversion.
Base64EncodingWeb Dev
Points clés
- Base64 increases file size by about 33%.
- It's essential for sending binary data over text-only protocols.
What is Base64?
Base64 is a group of binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent binary data in an ASCII string format.
It is commonly used when there is a need to encode binary data that needs to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with textual data.
Common Use Cases
Data URIs: Embedding small images directly into CSS or HTML.
Basic Authentication: Sending credentials in HTTP headers.
JWT: Encoding claims in the header and payload.
Questions fréquentes
Is Base64 encryption?
No, it is an encoding scheme. Anyone can decode it easily.
Does Base64 make files smaller?
No, it makes them roughly 33% larger due to the 6-bit to 8-bit mapping.