Free Online Tool

URL Encoder & Decoder

Free URL encoder and decoder. Encode or decode URLs and query strings with full support for special characters and UTF-8. Runs in your browser.

What is this tool?

URL encoding (percent-encoding) replaces unsafe characters in URLs with percent-sign sequences. For example, spaces become %20 and special characters like & become %26. This ensures URLs are valid across all browsers and servers.

Why use this tool?

APIs require properly encoded query parameters. Passing un-encoded characters like spaces, ampersands, or Unicode in URLs causes broken requests and security vulnerabilities. This tool handles full UTF-8 encoding and decoding.

Tips & Best Practices

  • Always encode query parameter values
  • Encode file paths with special characters
  • Decode received URLs to read them
  • Test API endpoints with encoded params

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do spaces become %20?

The space character (ASCII 32, hex 0x20) isn't safe in URLs. Percent-encoding represents it as %20 — the percent sign followed by the hex value.

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