Base32 is an encoding method based on the base-32 numeral system. It uses an alphabet of 32 digits, each of which represents a different combination of 5 bits (25). Since base32 is not very widely adopted, the question of notation—which characters to use to represent the 32 digits—is not as settled as in the case of more well-known numeral systems (such as hexadecimal), though RFCs and unofficial and de-facto standards exist. One way to represent Base32 numbers in human-readable form is using digits 0–9 followed by the twenty-two upper-case letters A–V. However, many other variations are used in different contexts. Historically, Baudot code could be considered a modified (stateful) base32 code.
This article focuses on the use of Base32 for representing byte strings rather than unsigned integer numbers, similar to the way Base64 works.