Base64 Before Java 8, Base64 encoding required a third-party library (Apache Commons Codec, Guava) or the internal sun.misc.BASE64Encoder class — an API that was never officially supported and was deliberately restricted from Java 9 onwards. Java 8 standardised encoding in java.util.Base64, which covers standard, URL-safe, and MIME variants and can wrap streams for large payloads. Java 8 added java.util.Base64 to the standard library. Three Encoders // Standard Base64 (RFC 4648) Base64.