URL Encode / Decode
Enter text to encode or decode. All processing is done locally in your browser.
How to Use the URL Encoder / Decoder
URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Certain characters have special meanings in URLs and must be encoded to avoid ambiguity. For example, spaces are encoded as %20, and special characters like & and = must be encoded when they appear in query parameter values.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Enter your text in the input text area. This can be: a URL you want to encode, an already-encoded URL you want to decode, or any plain text you want to percent-encode.
Step 2: Click "Encode" to convert special characters to their percent-encoded form (e.g., space β %20), or click "Decode" to convert percent-encoded sequences back to their original characters (e.g., %20 β space).
Step 3: Use "Swap" to quickly swap the input and output fields. Click "Clear" to reset both fields. The "Copy to Clipboard" button lets you quickly copy the result.
Understanding URL Encoding
What Gets Encoded: Characters that are not allowed in a URL, including spaces, special characters (#, %, &, +, =, ?, /, @, $, etc.), and non-ASCII characters (ΓΌ, Γ±, δΈζ, ζ₯ζ¬θͺ, etc.) must be encoded. Space is typically encoded as %20 (or + in form data), and other characters are converted to their hexadecimal ASCII/UTF-8 representation preceded by %.
Why It Matters: Proper URL encoding ensures that data can be transmitted reliably over the internet. Without encoding, special characters in query strings or URL paths could be misinterpreted by web servers, causing broken links, incorrect data transmission, or security vulnerabilities like URL injection attacks.
Double Encoding: Sometimes URLs suffer from "double encoding" where an already-encoded character gets encoded again. For example, %20 becomes %2520. If you encounter this, run the decode function once to fix it.
Common Use Cases
- Web Development: Encode query parameters before sending them in API requests
- Debugging: Decode URL parameters from browser address bars to understand what data is being sent
- Data Import/Export: Encode special characters in data files that need to be URL-safe
- Security Testing: Understand how applications handle encoded vs. decoded input
- Internationalization: Encode non-ASCII characters (UTF-8) for use in URLs and web forms
Tips for Best Results
When encoding a complete URL, you typically only need to encode the query parameter values, not the entire URL. For example: https://example.com/search?q=hello%20world β only the space in the search term needs encoding. Most modern browsers now handle non-ASCII characters in URLs through Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and percent-encoding automatically, but manual encoding is still essential for API calls and programmatic URL construction.
Frequently Asked Questions
URL encoding (percent-encoding) is a method used to encode information in URLs. It replaces unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII code. For example, a space becomes %20, and the ampersand (&) becomes %26. This ensures that URLs are properly interpreted by web browsers and servers without ambiguity.
In URL encoding, both %20 and + represent a space character, but they are used in different contexts. %20 is the standard percent-encoding for spaces and works everywhere in a URL. The + character is an alternative representation that is only valid in the query string portion of a URL (after the ?). Modern standards recommend using %20 for consistency. Our tool uses the encodeURIComponent function which outputs %20 for spaces.
Use encodeURI when you want to encode a complete URI while preserving characters that are valid in URIs (like /, ?, &, =). Use encodeURIComponent when you need to encode a value that will be part of a URI component (like a query parameter value) β this encodes all special characters including /, ?, &, and =. For most use cases involving query parameters, encodeURIComponent is the safer choice.
Yes! URL encoding can handle any Unicode character. Non-ASCII characters (like Chinese characters, Japanese, Arabic, or accented Latin letters) are first encoded as UTF-8 bytes, then each byte is percent-encoded. For example, the Chinese character "δΈ" becomes %E4%B8%AD. Most modern web browsers and APIs handle this encoding automatically, but it's important to understand when working with URLs programmatically.
Absolutely. All encoding and decoding operations are performed entirely in your browser using JavaScript's built-in encodeURIComponent and decodeURIComponent functions. Your input text is never transmitted over the internet, stored on any server, or accessible to anyone else. Your data remains completely private and under your control at all times.
User Reviews & Comments
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June 5, 2026Sara Chen
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April 19, 2026