Encoding	Sample / Text	Where is it used?	How to spot it?
Base 2 (Binary)	01000111 01110010	Machine code, logic gates.	Only uses 2 symbols: 0s and 1s.
Base 8 (Octal)	116 151 143 145	Linux file permissions (e.g., 755).	Digits 0-7. Often has leading zeros.
Base 10 (Decimal)	089 111 117 032	Everyday math, IP addresses.	Digits 0-9. Looks like normal numbers.
Base 16 (Hex)	41 77 65 73 6f	Memory dumps, Color codes.	Digits 0-9 and letters A-F.
Base 32	I5XW6ZBAO5XXE...	Google Authenticator, DNS tunneling.	A-Z and 2-7. Uppercase. Ends with =.
Base 36	4q9w5s	URL shortening, compacting IDs.	0-9 and a-z. Case-insensitive. No symbols.
Base 45	K19X CSUEWQE...	QR codes for COVID Certs.	Alphanumeric + symbols: $ % * + - . / :.
Base 58	1A1zP1eP5QGefi...	Bitcoin addresses.	Like Base64 but NO 0 O I l + /. No padding (=).
Base 62	ObsJmP173N2X...	URL Shorteners (bit.ly).	A-Z, a-z, 0-9. No symbols, no padding.
Base 64	V2VsbCBkb25lIS...	Email, Web traffic, Basic Auth.	A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /. Ends with = or ==.
Base 85	<~:2+3L+EqaE...~>	Adobe PDF, PostScript.	Starts with <~. Uses many symbols.
Base 92	@D_<sB5GVmj...	Internal data storage.	Wide characters but no whitespace.
Rot13	Uryyb Jbeyq	CTFs, Spoilers.	Text looks readable but “jumbled”. Shifted by 13 letters.
Base 65536	𖡅驣ꍬ𐙥啴...	Obfuscation, Unicode mapping.	Wild mix of Unicode glyphs (Asian chars, emojis).

Pro Tip: If you see 1, l, I, 0, and O mixed together, it is Base 64. If those confusing characters are missing, it is likely Base 58.