URL Encoder & Decoder Online
Percent-encode special characters in URLs and query strings, or decode encoded URLs back to normal text.
Decoded / Plain URL
Encoded URL
URL Percent-Encoding & Decoding Online
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs and URLs) may only contain a specific subset of standard ASCII characters. When query parameters, API requests, or web links contain symbols like spaces, ampersands, slashes, or non-Latin Unicode characters, they must be converted using percent-encoding (RFC 3986) to prevent broken links and server interpretation errors.
How URL Encoding Works
URL encoding replaces reserved, non-ASCII, and unsafe characters with a percent symbol (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's UTF-8 byte value.
Common URL Percent-Encoded Characters
| Character | Encoded Value | Meaning / Typical Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Space | %20 (or +) | Separates words in URLs and form GET query strings |
| & | %26 | Delimiter between multiple URL query parameters |
| = | %3D | Assigns parameter keys to values (e.g. key=value) |
| ? | %3F | Marks the start of the query string in a URL |
| / | %2F | Path segment separator |
| # | %23 | URL fragment identifier / anchor tag target |
| % | %25 | The escape prefix itself |
encodeURI vs encodeURIComponent
- Component Mode (
encodeURIComponent): Encodes every reserved character, including slashes, question marks, and ampersands. Use this mode when encoding query parameter values (such as an email address or target URL passed inside a redirect link). - Full URL Mode (
encodeURI): Preserves functional URL syntax characters (likehttp://,/,?, and&) while escaping unsafe characters like spaces and emojis. Use this when you have an entire web address that needs validation.
Related Text & Encoding Tools
Check out other online encoding and text utilities:
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- Clean Whitespace — strip accidental trailing spaces and invisible line breaks.