Base64 a string — that is not encryption

Transport encodings anyone can reverse without a key. If you needed confidentiality, that is AES — a different page.

hello world becomes aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ= and people search “base64 encrypt.” That search is the trap this hub exists to defuse. Encoding is a reversible alphabet change. Anyone with the string can decode it.

Split the three Base64 jobs

• Base64 is text (UTF-8), optional URL-safe alphabet.
• File Base64 is an arbitrary blob.
• Image to Base64 is a data: URI for an <img>.

URL encoder is encodeURIComponent territory — spaces and CJK in query strings. HTML entity encoder is for &, <, and paste-from-Word surprises, not a sanitizer that makes untrusted HTML safe.

Three-dot tokens belong on JWT decoder. Confidential payloads belong on AES.

Encoding is not encryption

URL percent-encoding ≠ HTML entities ≠ Base64 (reversible ASCII) ≠ AES (needs a key). File Base64 adds ~33% and fights Gmail’s 25 MB personal cap. JWT’s three segments are Base64URL — use the decoder, and do not treat JWT as encryption.