URL Encoder / Decoder — Free Online Tool

The URL Encoder / Decoder converts text to and from percent-encoding, the scheme that lets a URL carry characters it could not otherwise contain. A space becomes %20, an ampersand becomes %26, and any non-ASCII character is encoded as its UTF-8 bytes — so a name with an accent survives being put in a query string instead of truncating the URL at the first character something along the way did not like.

The distinction that trips people up is between encoding a whole URL and encoding one value inside it. Encoding an entire URL leaves the structural characters — the slashes, the ?, the & between parameters — intact, because those need to keep their meaning. Encoding a single parameter value must escape those same characters, because a search term containing "&" would otherwise be read as the start of a new parameter and silently split your data in half. In JavaScript that is the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent, and choosing the wrong one is one of the more common sources of "the API works until someone searches for something with a plus sign in it".

Decoding is the other half: turning a logged or copied URL back into readable text so you can see what was actually submitted, which is routinely how you find out that a value got double-encoded somewhere in a redirect chain.

Encoding and decoding run instantly in your browser — tokens or query strings you paste are never transmitted.

Our URL Encoder / Decoder is completely free to use with no signup required. For this tool, processing runs in your browser — your files and data stay on your device and are not uploaded to our servers.

Whether you are a developer, designer, student, or business owner, this tool is designed to save you time and make your workflow more efficient. Bookmark this page to access it whenever you need it — it will always be free.