URL Encoding Explained - Everything You Need to Know
Understand URL encoding and decoding, learn about percent-encoding, and discover when and why you need to encode URLs.
Read More →Online URL Encoder & Decoder
What is URL Encoding?
Our free online URL Encoder and Decoder is a must-have tool for web developers, API engineers, and anyone working with web technologies. URL encoding (also known as percent-encoding) converts characters into a format that can be safely transmitted over the Internet. Since URLs can only contain a limited set of characters, special characters, spaces, and non-ASCII text must be encoded.
URL encoding is essential when building web applications, consuming APIs, handling user input in query strings, or ensuring data integrity during transmission. Our tool handles all encoding scenarios including special characters, Unicode text, and complex URL components, making it the most comprehensive URL encoding solution available online.
How to Use URL Encoder/Decoder
- Enter your text - Paste or type the URL or text you want to encode or decode into the input area on the left.
- Choose Encode or Decode - Click "Encode" to convert special characters to percent-encoded format, or "Decode" to reverse the encoding.
- View the result - The encoded or decoded output appears instantly in the output area on the right.
- Copy to clipboard - Click the "Copy" button to copy the result to your clipboard for use in your code or browser.
- Clear and repeat - Use "Clear" to reset both fields and process another string.
Common Use Cases
- API Development - Properly encode query parameters and request bodies when building or consuming REST APIs with special characters in values.
- Form Submission - Ensure user input with spaces, symbols, or international characters is correctly transmitted via HTML forms.
- URL Construction - Build URLs dynamically with user-generated content while maintaining valid URL structure.
- Data Decoding - Decode URL-encoded data from server logs, analytics tools, or debugging output to understand the original values.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do spaces become %20 in URLs?
URLs cannot contain spaces. The space character (ASCII 32) is encoded as %20, where 20 is the hexadecimal representation. Alternatively, + can represent spaces in query strings, but %20 is more universally supported.
What's the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent?
encodeURI preserves URL structure characters like /, :, and @, suitable for full URLs. encodeURIComponent encodes everything except letters and digits, ideal for query parameter values where those characters have special meaning.
How do I encode Unicode characters?
Unicode characters are first converted to UTF-8 bytes, then each byte is percent-encoded. For example, the Chinese character "中" (U+4E2D) becomes %E4%B8%AD in UTF-8 encoding.
What characters should never be encoded?
When using encodeURIComponent, don't encode: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphen (-), underscore (_), period (.), and tilde (~). These are safe characters in URLs.
Can I decode multiple URLs at once?
Our tool processes one string at a time to ensure accuracy. For batch processing, you can paste multiple lines, though we recommend testing one first to verify the expected output.