URL Encoder/Decoder

URL encoding converts special characters into a format that can be transmitted over the Internet. Spaces become %20, & becomes %26, etc. This is essential because URLs can only contain certain ASCII characters, and special characters need to be encoded to avoid breaking links or API requests.

Simply paste your text or URL into the input field and click 'Process'. The tool automatically detects whether you need encoding or decoding based on your input. For encoding, it converts special characters to percent-encoded values. For decoding, it converts percent-encoded values back to readable text.

Common characters that get encoded include spaces (to %20), ampersands (to %26), question marks (to %3F), equals signs (to %3D), forward slashes (to %2F), and many special characters like @, #, $, %, and non-ASCII characters. Letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, periods, and tildes typically don't need encoding.

URL encoding and URI encoding are very similar and often used interchangeably. URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is the broader term that includes URLs. The encoding process is the same - converting unsafe characters to percent-encoded format. Both use the same % encoding scheme.

Yes, absolutely! The tool works in both directions. If you paste a URL with percent-encoded characters (like %20 for spaces), it will decode them back to their original readable form. This is useful for analyzing URLs or debugging web applications.

Yes, all encoding and decoding happens directly in your browser using client-side JavaScript. Your data is never sent to any server or stored anywhere. The tool works completely offline once the page is loaded, ensuring your URLs and sensitive data remain private.

encodeURI() is designed for encoding complete URLs and doesn't encode characters like :, /, ?, and & because they have special meaning in URLs. encodeURIComponent() encodes everything except unreserved characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, -, _, ., ~), making it ideal for encoding URL parameters and query string values. Use encodeURIComponent() when encoding user input or parameters to prevent breaking the URL structure. For example, 'http://example.com?q=a&b' needs the parameter value encoded.

URL encoding (percent-encoding) converts each character to its UTF-8 byte representation in hexadecimal, prefixed with %. A space becomes %20 (hex 20 = decimal 32 = ASCII space). Special characters like @ become %40, # becomes %23, and non-ASCII characters like é become %C3%A9 (two bytes in UTF-8). The plus sign (+) is sometimes used for spaces in form data, but %20 is the standard URL encoding for spaces.

International characters and emojis are encoded using UTF-8 percent-encoding. Each UTF-8 byte is converted to %XX format. For example, the emoji 😀 (U+1F600) is 4 bytes in UTF-8 and becomes %F0%9F%98%80. Chinese characters, Arabic text, and other non-ASCII characters are similarly encoded. Modern browsers handle this automatically, but when constructing URLs programmatically or working with APIs, proper encoding ensures compatibility across all systems.

Don't double-encode already encoded URLs, as this creates invalid URLs like %2520 (an encoded %). Don't encode the entire URL including the protocol and domain - only encode specific components like query parameters, path segments with special characters, or fragment identifiers. Also avoid encoding when your framework or library already handles it (like modern HTTP clients). Always check if your tool auto-encodes to prevent double-encoding issues that can break API calls and links.