URL Encoder / Decoder
Percent-encode text for safe use in URLs, or decode an encoded URL back to readable text.
About URL encoding
URLs can only contain a limited set of ASCII characters. Everything else — spaces, non-English letters, symbols like & or ? inside a value — must be percent-encoded as %XX byte sequences (a space becomes %20). Encoding the wrong way is a classic source of broken links and mangled query parameters.
Component vs full-URL encoding
Use Component when encoding a single value that goes inside a URL, like a search query or redirect target — it encodes / ? & = # too. Use Full URL when you have a complete URL and only want to fix illegal characters while keeping its structure intact.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a space sometimes become + instead of %20?
+ is a legacy convention from HTML form submissions (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). Both are decoded as a space in query strings, but %20 is the safe, universal choice.
Does this handle emoji and non-Latin scripts?
Yes — characters are encoded as UTF-8 bytes, so café becomes caf%C3%A9 and back again losslessly.
Last updated: 2026-07-11