URL Encode / Decode
Percent-encode text for URLs, or decode it back to plain text.
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Safely encode text for use in URLs, or decode a percent-encoded string back to readable text. It is essential for query parameters, links with special characters, and debugging web requests. The conversion runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Why URLs cannot contain just anything
A URL has a grammar. Question marks start the query string, ampersands separate parameters, equals signs split names from values, and hash marks begin the fragment. So when one of those characters needs to appear inside a value rather than act as punctuation, it has to be disguised. Percent encoding does that by replacing the character with a percent sign and its hexadecimal code, which is why spaces show up as %20.
The bug this prevents
Say you build a search link and the term contains an ampersand. Unencoded, the browser reads that ampersand as the start of a new parameter, and your search term silently arrives cut in half. The same happens with plus signs, hash marks and question marks inside values. These are frustrating bugs precisely because nothing errors; the request succeeds and the data is simply wrong.
Characters that must be encoded in a value
- Space becomes %20, or sometimes a plus sign in query strings.
- Ampersand, equals, question mark and hash all have structural meaning.
- Plus needs encoding because it can be read as a space.
- Non-English characters are encoded as their UTF-8 bytes, so one character can become several codes.
How to use URL Encode / Decode
- 1
Paste your text or encoded URL.
- 2
Choose Encode or Decode.
- 3
Copy the result.
Frequently asked questions
It replaces characters that aren't URL-safe (like spaces and &) with percent-codes so links work correctly.