URL Encoder / Decoder

Easily encode and decode URLs and strings to make them safe for all web browsers and systems. Our tool handles special characters and formatting instantly.

About Our URL Encoder / Decoder

URL encoding, also known as Percent-encoding, is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) under certain circumstances. It's essential for ensuring that URLs are correctly interpreted by web servers and browsers, especially when they contain special characters (like spaces, '&', '+', etc.) that have reserved meanings.

Why is URL Encoding Necessary?

URLs can only be transmitted over the internet using the ASCII character set. Since URLs often contain characters outside the ASCII set, or characters that have special meaning within URLs, they need to be converted into a valid ASCII format. For example, a space character is encoded as %20 or a '+' sign.

When to Encode vs. Decode

You typically need to encode data when you are constructing a URL, especially for query parameters. For example, if you are passing a search query like "cats & dogs" into a URL, it must be encoded to prevent the '&' from being interpreted as a parameter separator.

You need to decode a URL when you are processing it, for example, on a web server or in JavaScript, to retrieve the original, human-readable data from the query string.

How It Works

Paste Your String: Enter the full URL or any piece of text you want to process into the input field.
Choose an Action: Click the 'Encode' button to convert it to a URL-safe format, or 'Decode' to convert it back to its original form.
Copy the Result: The processed string will appear in the output field, ready to be copied.

Practical Use Cases

1. Creating Safe Links for Sharing

If you have a URL with spaces or Cyrillic characters, encoding it ensures that it will work correctly when you share it in messengers or on social media.

2. Passing Data in GET Requests

Developers constantly use URL encoding to safely pass complex data, like JSON strings or user-generated content, as parameters in a URL.

3. Reading Log Files and Analytics

Web server logs and analytics systems often store URLs in their encoded form. To analyze this data, you first need to decode the URLs to understand the user's original request.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions? We have answers.

What's the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent?

This is a crucial technical distinction. Both are JavaScript functions, but they encode different sets of characters. Our tool uses encodeURIComponent() because it's more aggressive and suitable for individual pieces of data.

encodeURI(): This function is designed to encode a full URL. It assumes the URL is already mostly well-formed and will NOT encode reserved characters that are necessary for a URL to function, like : / ? & =.
encodeURIComponent(): This function is designed to encode a single component of a URL, like a search query or a parameter value. It encodes almost everything, including reserved characters like : / ? & =.

For safely passing data in URL parameters, encodeURIComponent() is almost always the correct and safer choice.

Which characters are considered 'safe' and are not encoded?

URL encoding doesn't affect all characters. A specific set of 'unreserved' characters is considered safe and will pass through the encoding process unchanged. These include:

All alphanumeric characters: A-Z a-z 0-9
A few special characters: - _ . ~

Any character not in this set, including spaces, punctuation, and non-ASCII symbols, will be converted into its percent-encoded equivalent (e.g., %20).

Is URL encoding a form of encryption?

No, it's important not to confuse encoding with encryption. URL encoding is a reversible process of representing data in a specific format. Decoding is the straightforward reverse process. It provides no security or privacy for the data being transmitted.

Encryption, on the other hand, is a security measure that scrambles data using a key. The data can only be read by someone who has the correct key to decrypt it. Hashing (like MD5) is a one-way function, while encoding is two-way.

Why do spaces sometimes become a '+' sign?

You might have seen spaces in URLs represented as a plus sign (+) instead of %20. This is a specific behavior related to an older standard for encoding web form data (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). In this specific context, spaces are encoded as +. However, the modern standard for percent-encoding in URLs, as defined by RFC 3986, specifies that a space should be encoded as %20. Our tool uses the modern %20 standard, which is the most compatible.