URL Encoder / Decoder

Enter the text that you wish to encode or decode:

About URL Encoder / Decoder

Use this page to percent-encode text for a URL component or decode an existing encoded value for inspection. It is especially useful for query parameters containing spaces, ampersands, plus signs, accented letters, or non-Latin characters. Encode only the value you intend to pass whenever possible; encoding a complete URL can also change the delimiters that give the URL its structure.

Encode the parameter value, not the whole address

A URL may contain a scheme, hostname, path, query string, and fragment. Characters such as :, /, ?, =, and & often separate those parts. If the entire address is encoded, those separators may become percent sequences and the result may no longer function as an ordinary absolute URL.

For example, in https://example.com/search?q=red%20shoes&sort=new, the ampersand separates the q and sort parameters. An ampersand that belongs inside the search term must instead be represented as %26. This prevents it from being interpreted as the start of another parameter.

Character or text	Typical encoded form	Meaning in a query value
Space	`%20`	A literal space
`&`	`%26`	An ampersand that is data, not a parameter separator
`+`	`%2B`	A literal plus sign
`%`	`%25`	A literal percent sign
`é`	`%C3%A9`	UTF-8 bytes represented as percent sequences

Worked example: building a query parameter

Suppose a search page accepts a parameter named term, and the value you need to send is:

café + tea & cake

Enter that value in the encoder rather than entering the complete destination URL. A typical percent-encoded result is:

caf%C3%A9%20%2B%20tea%20%26%20cake

You can then place the result after term= while leaving the rest of the URL structure intact:

https://example.com/search?term=caf%C3%A9%20%2B%20tea%20%26%20cake&lang=en

Here, %26 belongs to the search term. The unencoded ampersand before lang=en remains a query-string separator. The literal plus sign is %2B, while each space is %20. The accented letter uses two sequences because its UTF-8 representation contains two bytes.

Spaces and plus signs need context

A space is commonly percent-encoded as %20. Form-style query encoding may represent spaces with + instead. Under those rules, the same example could appear as caf%C3%A9+%2B+tea+%26+cake: unescaped plus signs represent spaces, while %2B preserves the actual plus character.

Do not assume every plus sign decodes to a space. A plus has no universal space meaning across all URL components. The application, framework, or service receiving the query decides how it is interpreted. If a literal plus sign matters, encoding it as %2B avoids that ambiguity.

How to interpret the output

Encoding output: Percent sequences show how selected characters can be represented in a URL component. They do not prove that the destination accepts the parameter.
Decoding output: Readable text helps you inspect a value, but it does not establish that the source or destination is trustworthy.
Multiple sequences for one character: Unicode characters are generally converted to UTF-8 bytes, with each byte shown separately.
Uppercase and lowercase hex: Forms such as %2B and %2b normally represent the same byte, although output formatting may differ.

Percent-encoding is a representation format, not encryption. Do not use it to conceal passwords, access tokens, personal data, or other sensitive values.

A common mistake: encoding twice

Check the input for existing sequences before encoding it. If red%20shoes is encoded again, the percent sign may become %25, producing red%2520shoes. One decoding pass then returns red%20shoes, not red shoes. Layered encoding is sometimes intentional, but accidental double encoding often causes a server to receive the wrong value.

Another frequent error is encoding the complete address and obtaining something like https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fsearch.... That output may be appropriate when the entire URL is itself a parameter value, such as a nested redirect target. It is not a direct replacement for the original navigable URL.

Limits and useful follow-up checks

This conversion cannot determine whether a particular endpoint expects %20 or form-style + for spaces. It also does not verify parameter meaning, destination availability, redirect behavior, canonicalization, or search indexing. Invalid percent sequences and unexpected character encodings may be handled differently by browsers, servers, and application frameworks.

After assembling the address, use the Server Status Checker to inspect its HTTP response or the WWW Redirect Checker when redirects are relevant. A successful response still does not confirm that the application interpreted every parameter as intended. For broader guidance on what automated checks can and cannot establish, see Methodology and Tool Limitations.