Back to tools
Base32 Encode/Decode
Convert text to and from Base32 encoding. Base32 uses a 32-character set for encoding binary data.
Examples
About Base32 Encoding
Base32 is a binary-to-text encoding scheme that uses 32 ASCII characters to represent binary data. It's particularly useful when case-insensitive encoding is needed.
Key Features:
- • Uses 32-character alphabet (A-Z and 2-7 in RFC 4648)
- • Case-insensitive (unlike Base64)
- • More human-friendly than Base64 for manual entry
- • Padding with '=' characters to make output length a multiple of 8
- • 40% less space-efficient than Base64
Base32 Variants:
- • RFC 4648: Standard Base32 using A-Z, 2-7
- • RFC 4648 HEX: Uses 0-9, A-V for better sortability
- • Crockford's Base32: Excludes I, L, O, U to reduce confusion
- • z-base-32: Human-oriented base32 encoding
Common Uses:
- • TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) secret keys
- • Google Authenticator and 2FA applications
- • Encoding binary data in DNS (case-insensitive)
- • File integrity checksums in some systems
- • Nintendo friend codes
- • Geohashing algorithms
Base32 vs Base64:
- • Base32 output is ~20% longer than Base64
- • Base32 is case-insensitive, Base64 is case-sensitive
- • Base32 is safer for systems that might change case
- • Base64 is more space-efficient for data transmission