🔗 URL Encoder & Decoder

What is URL Encoding and Decoding?

URL encoding, also known as percent encoding, is a fundamental mechanism for encoding special characters and information within Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to ensure safe transmission over the internet. URLs can only contain specific ASCII characters from the unreserved set including alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), hyphens, underscores, periods, and tildes. Any other characters including spaces, special symbols, non-ASCII Unicode characters, and reserved characters with special meanings in URL syntax must be percent-encoded before inclusion in URLs. The encoding process converts each special character into a percent sign followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's byte value in UTF-8 encoding. For example, a space character becomes %20, an ampersand becomes %26, and a question mark becomes %3F.

Our free online URL encoder and decoder tool provides instant bidirectional conversion between plain text and percent-encoded format, making it essential for web developers, API developers, SEO specialists, and digital marketers working with URLs, query parameters, and web applications. URL encoding proves necessary when constructing search queries with spaces and special characters, passing complex data through URL parameters in GET requests, creating shareable links with UTF-8 characters from international languages, debugging API endpoints with encoded parameters, sanitizing user input for inclusion in redirect URLs, analyzing website analytics with encoded campaign parameters, and building dynamic web applications that generate URLs programmatically. All encoding and decoding operations happen entirely within your browser using JavaScript, guaranteeing complete privacy since your URLs never get transmitted to external servers or stored in databases.

Understanding URL encoding is crucial for modern web development as it affects how data gets transmitted in HTTP requests, how browsers interpret and display URLs, how search engines process website addresses, and how web applications handle user input in forms and query strings. Common scenarios requiring URL encoding include spaces in search queries which must become %20 or plus signs, ampersands separating multiple parameters which need encoding when used as values, forward slashes in file paths that could be misinterpreted as path separators, hashtags and special characters in social media links, email addresses with at symbols and periods in contact forms, international characters from languages like Chinese, Arabic, or Cyrillic in multilingual websites, and JSON data passed through URL parameters in RESTful APIs. Our tool supports full Unicode character encoding and decoding, making it compatible with international URLs and modern web standards.

Why Use URL Encoding?

Key Features

How to Use the URL Encoder & Decoder

1. Enter Your Text: Paste or type your URL, query string, or any text containing special characters into the input text area on the left
2. Choose Operation: Click "Encode URL" to convert special characters to percent-encoded format (%20, %3A, etc.), or "Decode URL" to convert back to readable text
3. View Results: The encoded or decoded result appears instantly in the output text area on the right side
4. Copy Result: Click the "Copy" button to copy the encoded or decoded text to your clipboard for immediate use
5. Swap Content: Use the "Swap" button to move output to input for reverse operations or further processing
6. Clear All: Click "Clear All" to reset both input and output areas and start fresh with new text
7. Paste from Clipboard: Use the "Paste" button for quick insertion of URLs from your clipboard

Common URL Encoding Use Cases

• Search Queries: Encode spaces and special characters in search terms before appending to search URLs
• API Requests: Properly encode parameter values when making GET requests to RESTful APIs
• Email Links: Encode email addresses and subject lines in mailto: links for proper functionality
• Social Sharing: Encode URLs and messages for social media sharing buttons on websites
• Redirect URLs: Encode destination URLs when passing them as parameters in redirect mechanisms
• Analytics Tracking: Encode campaign parameters in UTM tags for accurate analytics tracking
• Form Submissions: Encode form data before constructing GET request URLs with query parameters
• International URLs: Encode non-ASCII characters from international domains and multilingual content

Characters That Need URL Encoding

• Space: Encoded as %20 or + (in form data), the most commonly encoded character
• Reserved Characters: ! # $ & ' ( ) * + , / : ; = ? @ [ ] need encoding when used as data
• Unsafe Characters: " < > % { } | \ ^ ~ ` should always be encoded for compatibility
• Non-ASCII Characters: Any Unicode character outside basic ASCII range requires percent encoding
• Control Characters: Characters like newlines, tabs, and carriage returns must be encoded

Best Practices for URL Encoding

• Encode User Input: Always encode user-provided data before including it in URLs to prevent injection attacks
• Double Encoding: Avoid encoding already-encoded URLs as this creates invalid double-encoded strings
• Component Encoding: Encode each URL component (path, query, fragment) separately with appropriate rules
• Plus vs %20: Use %20 in path components, while + is acceptable in query string values
• International Support: Always use UTF-8 encoding for international characters in modern applications
• Testing: Test encoded URLs in browsers and tools to ensure proper interpretation and functionality