Hex ↔ UTF-8 ↔ Base64 Converter
Hex ↔ UTF-8 ↔ Base64 FAQ
Why do developers use Hex encoding?
Hex is human-readable while still representing raw binary data precisely. It's widely used in cryptography (hashes, keys), debugging, and low-level computing.
Is Base64 encryption?
No. Base64 is not encryption, it's just an encoding scheme. It provides no secrecy—anyone can decode Base64 back to the original data.
Why does Base64 increase data size?
Base64 encoding expands data size by about 33% because it maps every 3 bytes of input into 4 ASCII characters.
Can UTF-8, Hex, and Base64 be reversed?
Yes. UTF-8 can be re-encoded into bytes, Hex can be converted back to raw binary, and Base64 is fully reversible.
What are common uses of Base64?
Embedding images in HTML/CSS, safely transmitting binary data in JSON, encoding email attachments (MIME), and storing cryptographic material in text-based formats.
Which is better for cryptography, Hex or Base64?
Both are safe for representing cryptographic values. Hex is more common for human readability, while Base64 is more compact for storage and transmission.
Does UTF-8 always use 1 byte per character?
No. UTF-8 is variable-length: ASCII characters use 1 byte, while emojis or other Unicode characters can use up to 4 bytes.
What is Hex, UTF-8, and Base64?
Hex, UTF-8, and Base64 are three of the most widely used encoding systems in modern computing, each serving unique but often complementary purposes. Developers, cryptographers, and system engineers frequently need to convert between these formats when working with raw data, cryptographic functions, APIs, and storage systems.
UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format, 8-bit) is the standard character encoding for the web and most operating systems. It represents characters in the Unicode standard using a variable-length encoding scheme. Each character may take between 1 and 4 bytes. UTF-8 is backward-compatible with ASCII, making it ideal for international applications, multilingual systems, and web content. Nearly every modern application, database, and programming language relies on UTF-8 for text storage and exchange.
Hexadecimal (Hex) encoding is a base-16 representation of binary data, using digits 0–9 and letters A–F. Hex is widely used in cryptography, networking, debugging, and programming. For example, cryptographic hashes (like SHA-256) are usually represented as 64-character hex strings, and memory addresses in low-level programming are commonly written in hex. Hex is human-readable to developers but also compact, mapping exactly two characters to a single byte.
Base64 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents arbitrary binary data using 64 ASCII characters. Its main use case is safely transmitting binary data in environments designed for textual content, such as JSON, XML, HTML, or email. Base64 is commonly used for embedding images into HTML/CSS, storing API keys or credentials in text-based configuration files, and transmitting cryptographic material like certificates or public keys. While Base64 is very useful, it expands the size of the data by around 33%.
Converting between UTF-8, Hex, and Base64 is a common task when working with web development, cryptography, APIs, or data analysis. For example, you might need to:
- Convert a text string (UTF-8) into its Hex or Base64 representation for secure transmission.
- Take a cryptographic hash (Hex) and encode it into Base64 for inclusion in a JSON Web Token (JWT).
- Decode Base64-encoded certificates, keys, or binary blobs into readable UTF-8 or raw Hex.
This tool performs all conversions instantly in your browser, ensuring security and privacy. No data is uploaded to a server. The interface is designed to be developer-friendly, supporting copy-to-clipboard functionality and auto-updating results without requiring a button click.
Whether you are a web developer working with APIs, a blockchain engineer dealing with cryptographic hashes, or simply trying to debug data encoding issues, this converter is a simple but essential tool in your toolkit.