diff --git a/routes/create_password.go b/routes/create_password.go
index d2d8960..0c57c73 100644
--- a/routes/create_password.go
+++ b/routes/create_password.go
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ import (
 func CreatePassword(store storage.Store, maxLength int, encoding *base64.Encoding) http.HandlerFunc {
 	return func(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
 		var reqBody struct {
-			Password  string        `json:"password"`
+			// Go automatically decodes byte arrays using Base64
+			Password  []byte        `json:"password"`
 			ExpiresIn time.Duration `json:"expires-in"`
 		}
 		err := json.NewDecoder(req.Body).Decode(&reqBody)
@@ -21,13 +22,7 @@ func CreatePassword(store storage.Store, maxLength int, encoding *base64.Encodin
 			return
 		}
 
-		password, err := encoding.DecodeString(reqBody.Password)
-		if err != nil {
-			http.Error(res, "Bad base64 encoding", http.StatusBadRequest)
-			return
-		}
-
-		if len(password) > maxLength {
+		if len(reqBody.Password) > maxLength {
 			http.Error(res, "Password too long", 413) // Payload Too Large
 			return
 		}
@@ -44,7 +39,7 @@ func CreatePassword(store storage.Store, maxLength int, encoding *base64.Encodin
 		}
 
 		id, err := store.Create(
-			password,
+			reqBody.Password,
 			time.Now().Add(expiresIn),
 		)
 		switch {
diff --git a/routes/get_password.go b/routes/get_password.go
index 9495c1e..499f5a4 100644
--- a/routes/get_password.go
+++ b/routes/get_password.go
@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ func GetPassword(store storage.Store, encoding *base64.Encoding) http.HandlerFun
 			return
 		}
 
-		encodedPassword := encoding.EncodeToString(password)
 		resBody := struct {
-			Password string `json:"password"`
+			// Go automatically encodes byte arrays using Base64
+			Password []byte `json:"password"`
 		}{
-			Password: encodedPassword,
+			Password: password,
 		}
 		err = json.NewEncoder(res).Encode(&resBody)
 		if err != nil {