Free URL Encoder & Decoder Online

Why URLs Need Encoding

A URL can only contain a limited set of characters. Some characters have special jobs: ? starts the query string, & separates parameters, = links a name to a value and # marks a fragment. Others, such as spaces, quotes, Hindi letters or emojis, are not allowed at all. If you put them into a URL unchanged, the link may break or the server may read the wrong value.

URL encoding (percent-encoding) fixes this by replacing each problematic character with % plus its hexadecimal byte value. This tool encodes text so it is safe to place in a URL, and decodes messy encoded URLs back into readable text.

How to Use the URL Encoder / Decoder

Select URL Encode or URL Decode.
Type or paste your text (use Paste for quick input).
The result appears instantly. Copy it with one click.
If a string can’t be decoded, a clear error message explains why.

Examples

Original	Encoded
`hello world & more?`	`hello%20world%20%26%20more%3F`
`chai & samosa`	`chai%20%26%20samosa`
`price=100/kg`	`price%3D100%2Fkg`
`क`	`%E0%A4%95`

Common Percent-Encoded Characters

Character	Encoded	Character	Encoded
space	`%20`	`&`	`%26`
`/`	`%2F`	`=`	`%3D`
`?`	`%3F`	`#`	`%23`
`:`	`%3A`	`+`	`%2B`
`@`	`%40`	`%`	`%25`

A Practical Example

Suppose you are building a search link and the user searches for chai & samosa. If you insert it directly:

https://example.com/search?q=chai & samosa

the server sees the parameter q=chai followed by a broken second parameter. Encoding the value first gives the correct link:

https://example.com/search?q=chai%20%26%20samosa

encodeURIComponent vs encodeURI

JavaScript offers two functions:

encodeURIComponent() encodes nearly everything, including / ? & = :. Use it for individual values such as query parameters. This tool uses it.
encodeURI() leaves URL structure characters alone. Use it when encoding a complete URL that only has a few unsafe characters, like spaces.

In PHP the equivalents are rawurlencode() (spaces as %20) and urlencode() (spaces as +).

Who Uses This Tool?

Developers building API requests, redirect URLs and OAuth callback links.
Digital marketers creating UTM-tagged campaign links.
SEO specialists reading encoded URLs from analytics and crawl reports.
Anyone trying to make sense of a long, unreadable link full of % signs.

Related Tools

Base64 Encoder / Decoder — another way to make data text-safe.
JSON Formatter — read API responses clearly.
Case Converter — create lowercase kebab-case URL slugs.

Frequently Asked Questions

URL encoding, also called percent-encoding, replaces characters that are not allowed or have special meaning in a URL with a % sign followed by two hexadecimal digits. A space becomes %20 and an ampersand becomes %26.

HTML forms submitted with the application/x-www-form-urlencoded format use + for spaces in the query string. In the rest of a URL, and in this tool, a space is encoded as %20. Most servers understand both in query strings.

It uses JavaScript's encodeURIComponent, which encodes everything except letters, digits and the characters - _ . ! ~ * ' ( ). That makes it safe for individual query parameter values.

Usually not. Encoding a full URL turns the :// and / characters into %3A%2F%2F, which breaks the link. Encode only the parts you insert into a URL, such as a search term or a redirect address passed as a parameter.

They are first converted to UTF-8 bytes, and each byte is percent-encoded. For example, the Hindi letter "क" becomes %E0%A4%95.

The text contains a % sign that is not followed by two valid hexadecimal digits, or an incomplete multi-byte sequence. This often happens when a URL was cut off or when a literal % was never encoded as %25.