# @upstash/redis returns base64-looking values
## What you see
await redis.set("key", "value");
const data = await redis.get("key");
console.log(data); // dmFsdWU=
The value stored fine. What came back is the base64 form of "value".
## Why
The SDK asks the REST API for base64-encoded responses by default.
This avoids a class of res.json() deserialization failures on odd
byte sequences. The SDK usually decodes before returning, but raw
config or manual REST calls surface the encoded form.
## Confirm
Decode the string as base64. If it decodes to your original value,
this is the cause:
Buffer.from("dmFsdWU=", "base64").toString() // "value"
## Fix
Turn it off if your data is plain text or JSON:
const redis = new Redis({
// ...
responseEncoding: false,
});
Keep it on if you store binary data URIs base64 survives the JSON
transport cleanly, which is the point of the default.
## Verify
Re-run the set/get round trip and get back the original string
without manual decoding.