URL Encoder / Decoder
Encode and decode URLs online. Free URL encoder/decoder — convert special characters to percent-encoding and back.
Three steps to get started
Paste your text or URL
Enter the text or URL-encoded string you want to convert in the input area.
Click Encode or Decode
Click "Encode" to convert special characters to percent-encoding, or "Decode" to convert back to plain text.
Copy the result
Click Copy to copy the encoded or decoded result to your clipboard.
URL encoding and percent-encoding explained
URL encoding (formally called percent-encoding) is a mechanism defined in RFC 3986 that allows any character to be safely represented in a URL. URLs can only contain a limited set of ASCII characters. All other characters — including spaces, non-ASCII letters, and special symbols — must be encoded.
This is critical for web development. Every time you build a URL with a query string, you must URL-encode the values. Failing to do so can lead to broken URLs, security vulnerabilities like open redirect attacks, and data being silently truncated by servers.
Common uses for URL encoding:
- Search queries:
?q=hello+world→?q=hello%20world - Form submissions: Encoding form field values before sending
- OAuth tokens: Tokens often contain + and = characters that need encoding
- API calls: Encoding filter values, file paths, and other parameters
- Sharing URLs: Encoding special characters in user-generated content
This tool uses JavaScript's native encodeURIComponent() and decodeURIComponent() functions — the same functions used in every browser and Node.js application. All processing is local to your browser; your data is never sent to any server.