URL Encode and Decode

Encode special characters for URLs or decode percent-encoded strings back to readable text.

Loading...
1. Select the Encode or Decode mode using the toggle at the top. 2. Paste the text or URL you want to encode or decode into the input field. 3. Choose between encodeURIComponent mode (for individual query parameters) or encodeURI mode (for full URLs). 4. View the encoded or decoded result instantly in the output area. 5. Click the copy button to copy the transformed text to your clipboard.

About This Tool

The URL Encode and Decode tool converts special characters into their percent-encoded equivalents for safe use in URLs, and reverses the process to make encoded URLs human-readable again. This is essential when constructing query parameters, handling form submissions, or debugging web requests.

URL encoding (also called percent encoding) replaces unsafe characters like spaces, ampersands, and non-ASCII characters with a percent sign followed by their hexadecimal value. This ensures URLs remain valid and parseable by browsers and servers. The tool supports both encodeURIComponent (for individual parameters) and encodeURI (for full URLs) behaviors.

Developers frequently need this tool when building API requests with special characters, debugging encoded URLs in logs, or preparing data for GET requests where parameters must be properly escaped.

Frequently Asked Questions

Characters like spaces, &, =, ?, #, /, +, and non-ASCII characters (accented letters, emoji, CJK characters) must be encoded when used in URL query parameters to avoid breaking the URL structure.
encodeURI encodes a full URL but preserves characters like :, /, ?, and # that are part of URL structure. encodeURIComponent encodes everything except letters, digits, and a few special characters, making it suitable for encoding individual query parameter values.
In the application/x-www-form-urlencoded format (used by HTML forms), spaces are encoded as +. In standard percent encoding (RFC 3986), spaces become %20. Both are valid in different contexts.
Yes. Paste the entire URL and the tool will decode all percent-encoded sequences throughout the string, making query parameters and path segments readable again.
No. URL encoding (percent encoding) converts characters to %XX format for use in URLs. HTML encoding converts characters to &entities; like & and < for safe display in HTML documents. They serve different purposes.

Related Tools

Base64 Encode and Decode

Encode text or images to Base64 and decode Base64 strings back to their original format.

Developer Tools

HTML Entity Encode and Decode

Convert special characters to HTML entities and decode HTML entities back to readable text.

Developer Tools

JSON Formatter and Validator

Format, validate, and beautify JSON data with syntax highlighting, tree view, and error detection.

Developer Tools

URL Parser

Break down URLs into protocol, host, port, path, query parameters, and hash components.

Developer Tools

Regex Tester

Test regular expressions with real-time match highlighting, group capture display, and a pattern library.

Developer Tools

JWT Decoder

Decode JSON Web Tokens to inspect header, payload, and signature without needing the secret key.

Developer Tools