URL Encoder Decoder

Encode or decode text for safe use in URLs instantly. This URL encoder decoder helps you switch between readable text and percent-encoded strings without leaving the browser.

Whether you call it url encoder decoder or url decoder, this free tool handles it instantly in your browser.

Enter text or URL-encoded text

21 chars2 words

Options

Mode

Processed outputLive preview

hello%20world%3Fname%3Dalex

Ctrl+Enter to copy | Ctrl+Z to undo

Example usage

Example input

hello world?name=alex

Example output

hello%20world%3Fname%3Dalex

Batch Processing

Enter multiple inputs, one per line. Each line will be processed separately.

Input (one per line)

Results

Why this tool?

Everything runs right in your browser — no uploads, no sign-up, no waiting. Your text never leaves your device.

Quick tips

•Outputs update live as you type.
•Use the sticky copy button to grab results quickly.
•Bookmark this page for fast access.

How it works

Choose whether you want to encode plain text or decode URL-encoded text.
Paste the source value into the input field.
The result updates instantly using standard browser-safe encoding rules.

Use cases

Encode query values before adding them to URLs.

Decode copied percent-encoded strings during debugging.

Check how spaces and symbols are represented in URLs.

Prepare safe link parameters for testing and sharing.

Why URLs need encoding at all

URLs have a limited alphabet, defined back in RFC 3986. Some characters are reserved because they mean something structural — ? starts the query string, & separates parameters, # marks a fragment, / separates path segments. Others, like spaces, simply cannot appear at all. Percent-encoding solves both problems by replacing a character with % followed by its byte value in hex: a space becomes %20, ? becomes %3F, & becomes %26.

This is why an unencoded ampersand inside a parameter value silently breaks a link — the receiving server reads it as the start of a new parameter and your value is truncated at the &. Encoding the value first keeps it intact.

The + versus %20 confusion, and Unicode

You will see spaces encoded two ways. In the path of a URL, a space is %20. In a query string submitted by an HTML form, the older application/x-www-form-urlencoded convention encodes a space as +. Both are correct in their own context, which is why a value can arrive with literal plus signs where spaces belong if the wrong decoder was used.

Non-ASCII characters expand more than people expect, because each byte is encoded separately. The é in "café" is two UTF-8 bytes, so it becomes %C3%A9 — six characters for one letter. Emoji, at four bytes, become twelve. That is why a URL containing a short non-English phrase can look enormous, and why URL length limits bite sooner than you would guess. For clean, readable URLs without the encoding, our Slug Generator strips accents and punctuation instead.

Encoding