URL encoder and decoder

Encode text so it is safe in a URL, decode percent escapes, and see every part of a URL and its query parameters.

Direction
Encode as
Output

URL parts

Paste a full URL above to see its parts.

Questions people ask

What is URL encoding?

URLs can only contain a limited set of ASCII characters. Anything else, including spaces, &, = and non-English letters, is written as % followed by the byte in hex. A space becomes %20, and “é” becomes %C3%A9 (its two UTF-8 bytes).

When should I encode a value versus a whole URL?

Encode each value you put into a query string or path (JavaScript’s encodeURIComponent), so a value like “a&b” doesn’t split into two parameters. Encoding a whole URL (encodeURI) only escapes characters that are never allowed and keeps the structure.