URL Encode/Decode Tool

📄 Result

What Is URL Encoding?

URL encoding (percent-encoding) converts characters that aren't allowed or have special meaning in a URL — like spaces, ampersands, and special symbols — into a safe "%XX" format, ensuring the URL is transmitted correctly by browsers and servers.

How to Use the URL Encode/Decode Tool

  1. Choose "Encode" or "Decode."
  2. Enter or paste your text or URL.
  3. Copy the converted result instantly.

How URL Encoding Works

Each unsafe character is replaced with a percent sign followed by its hexadecimal ASCII value. For example, a space becomes %20, and an ampersand (&) becomes %26. This lets special characters be safely included in URLs, query strings, and form data without breaking the URL structure.

Worked Example

Example: "hello world&lang=en"

Encoded: hello%20world%26lang%3Den

The space becomes %20, the ampersand becomes %26, and the equals sign becomes %3D.

Common Uses for URL Encoding

  • Passing search queries or special characters safely in a URL.
  • Constructing API request URLs with parameters.
  • Ensuring form data submitted via GET requests doesn't break the URL structure.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Double-encoding a URL that's already encoded, which produces incorrect results (e.g., %2520 instead of %20).
  • Forgetting that reserved characters (like / and ?) have structural meaning in URLs and may need selective encoding depending on context.
  • Manually typing percent-encoded characters instead of using a reliable encoding tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

It safely represents special characters (spaces, symbols, non-ASCII characters) within a URL so browsers and servers can correctly interpret and transmit it.

%20 is the percent-encoded representation of a space character.

No — they're different encoding schemes for different purposes. URL encoding specifically handles characters unsafe for URLs, while Base64 represents binary data using a fixed character set for general text-safe transport.

Certain characters (letters, numbers, and a few symbols like - _ . ~) are already considered 'safe' within URLs and don't require encoding.

No — all encoding and decoding happens directly in your browser using JavaScript; nothing is transmitted to any server.