URL Encoder / Decoder
Percent-encode or decode URLs.
URL Encoder / Decoder at a glance
URL Encoder / Decoder is a free online developer tool you can use right now to percent-encode or decode URLs โ no account, no install and no usage limit. It runs entirely inside your browser, so whatever you enter stays on your own device.
- Price
- Free โ no trial, no paid tier, no watermark
- Sign-up
- Not required
- Where it runs
- In your browser โ nothing is uploaded to a server
- Works on
- Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge โ desktop, tablet and phone
- Category
- Developer Tools
About URL Encoder / Decoder
URL encoding โ properly called percent-encoding โ replaces characters that would otherwise break a URL with a percent sign and their hexadecimal byte value. A space becomes %20, a question mark %3F, an ampersand %26. Paste a URL or a query-string value here and convert it in either direction.
The characters that matter are the reserved ones: ? & = # / and space. If a value inside a query parameter contains an unencoded ampersand, everything after it is parsed as a new parameter, and your value is silently truncated. The same applies to a # โ anything following it is treated as a fragment and never reaches the server at all. This is the single most common cause of a URL that works in testing and fails with real data.
There are two encoding conventions and they are not interchangeable. In a query string, a space may be encoded as either %20 or +, because the form-encoding standard defines + as a space. In a path segment, + is a literal plus sign and only %20 means a space. Encoding a path with form rules produces a URL that resolves to the wrong resource, which is why this tool distinguishes between the two.
How to use URL Encoder / Decoder
- Paste the URL or the individual parameter value into the input box.
- Choose encode or decode.
- Copy the result โ encode a full URL to make it safe to share, or a single value before inserting it into a query string.
Frequently asked questions
Should a space be %20 or a plus sign?
In a query string both are accepted, because the form-encoding standard defines + as a space. In a URL path only %20 is a space โ a + there is a literal plus character. When in doubt use %20, which is correct in both positions.
Why did my URL break when the value contained an ampersand?
Because an unencoded & starts a new query parameter. Everything after it is parsed as a separate key-value pair, so your value is cut short. Encode the value as %26 before inserting it and the whole string survives intact.
Do I encode the whole URL or just part of it?
Just the parts that contain user data โ individual parameter values or path segments. Encoding an entire URL turns its own :// and ? into percent codes, producing a string that is no longer a URL at all.
How are non-English characters handled?
They are encoded as UTF-8 bytes, so each character becomes one or more percent codes. The รฉ in cafรฉ becomes %C3%A9 โ two bytes, two codes. Decoding reverses it exactly, so accented and non-Latin text round-trips without loss.