atob() global function

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The atob() function decodes a string of data which has been encoded using Base64 encoding. You can use the btoa() method to encode and transmit data which may otherwise cause communication problems, then transmit it and use the atob() method to decode the data again. For example, you can encode, transmit, and decode control characters such as ASCII values 0 through 31.

For use with arbitrary Unicode strings, see The "Unicode Problem" section of the Base64 glossary entry.

Syntax

js
atob(encodedData)

Parameters

encodedData

A binary string (i.e., a string in which each character in the string is treated as a byte of binary data) containing base64-encoded data.

Return value

An ASCII string containing decoded data from encodedData.

Exceptions

InvalidCharacterError DOMException

Thrown if encodedData is not valid base64.

Examples

js
const encodedData = btoa("Hello, world"); // encode a string
const decodedData = atob(encodedData); // decode the string

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# dom-atob-dev

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also