Drop any file to identify it
No upload. No signup. No sending your file halfway across the internet.
We tell you what it is, right here in your browser.
Drop it!
Let go to identify this file.
Couldn't identify this file
Need to convert it? fwip it →
PEM is the format that keeps HTTPS working. Every SSL certificate, every TLS private key, every certificate chain you've configured on a web server was probably in PEM format. The structure is simple: Base64-encoded binary data between `-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----` and `-----END CERTIFICATE-----` markers (or BEGIN PRIVATE KEY, BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY, etc.).
The format's beauty is its text nature. PEM files can be concatenated (stack a certificate and its chain in one file), emailed, pasted into web forms, stored in environment variables, and version-controlled. The Base64 encoding makes binary cryptographic data safe for text-only transport channels.
A PEM file can contain a certificate, a private key, a certificate chain, a CSR, or multiple items concatenated. The BEGIN/END markers tell you what's inside. Handle private key PEM files like passwords — if someone gets your private key, they can impersonate your server. Certificate PEM files are public and safe to share.