Result

Base64 Encoding: Where and Why

Base64 encodes binary data into 64 ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, / with = for padding). Every 3 bytes of binary become 4 Base64 characters (~33% size increase). Used everywhere: email attachments (MIME), data URIs in HTML/CSS (url(data:image/png;base64,...)), JWT tokens, Kubernetes secrets, and certificate PEM format. Not encryption — Base64 provides zero security, only transport safety for binary data in text protocols.

CLI Equivalent

echo -n "hello" | base64
echo "aGVsbG8=" | base64 -d