---
page_title: textdecodebase64 - Functions - Configuration Language
description: >-
  The textdecodebase64 function decodes a string that was previously
  Base64-encoded,

  and then interprets the result as characters in a specified character
  encoding.
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `textdecodebase64` Function

-> **Note:** This function is supported only in Terraform v0.14 and later.

`textdecodebase64` function decodes a string that was previously Base64-encoded,
and then interprets the result as characters in a specified character encoding.

Terraform uses the "standard" Base64 alphabet as defined in
[RFC 4648 section 4](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648#section-4).

The `encoding_name` argument must contain one of the encoding names or aliases
recorded in
[the IANA character encoding registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml).
Terraform supports only a subset of the registered encodings, and the encoding
support may vary between Terraform versions.

Terraform accepts the encoding name `UTF-8`, which will produce the same result
as [`base64decode`](/terraform/language/functions/base64decode).

## Examples

```
> textdecodebase64("SABlAGwAbABvACAAVwBvAHIAbABkAA==", "UTF-16LE")
Hello World
```

## Related Functions

* [`textencodebase64`](/terraform/language/functions/textencodebase64) performs the opposite operation,
  applying target encoding and then Base64 to a string.
* [`base64decode`](/terraform/language/functions/base64decode) is effectively a shorthand for
  `textdecodebase64` where the character encoding is fixed as `UTF-8`.