Exposed-type steel column bases are used widely in low-rise building construction. Numerous researchers have examined methods to identify their stiffness and strength, but those studies have heretofore been restricted to in-plane behaviors. This paper presents an experimental investigation of inelastic behaviors of square hollow section (SHS) steel column bases under biaxial bending. Two types of failure modes are considered : anchor bolt yielding and base plate yielding. Different pinching effects and interaction surfaces for biaxial bending are observed for these two modes during bi-directional quasi-static cyclic loading tests. Differences are elucidated using limit analyses based on a simple analytical model.