URL Encoder & Decoder
Encode & Decode URLs Instantly
Convert special characters to URL-safe percent-encoded format, or decode encoded URLs back to readable text. Essential for web development and API work.
Multiple Encoding Types
Choose between full URL encoding, component encoding, or encode all characters for maximum compatibility.
Instant Decode
Paste any percent-encoded string and decode it back to readable text with one click.
Developer Friendly
Perfect for building API requests, query strings, form data, and debugging encoded URLs.
100% Client-Side
All encoding and decoding happens in your browser. No data is ever sent to our servers.
Understanding URL Encoding for Web Development
URL encoding (also called percent-encoding) is a mechanism for encoding characters in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). It replaces unsafe characters with a '%' followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII code. For example, a space becomes '%20', and an ampersand (&) becomes '%26'.
Why Is URL Encoding Necessary?
URLs can only contain a limited set of characters from the ASCII character set. Characters like spaces, special symbols, and non-ASCII characters must be encoded to be safely transmitted in URLs. Without proper encoding, URLs can break, cause security vulnerabilities (like injection attacks), or be misinterpreted by web servers and browsers.
Types of URL Encoding
There are different levels of URL encoding. encodeURI() encodes a full URL but preserves characters like ':', '/', '?', and '&' that have special meaning in URLs. encodeURIComponent() encodes everything except letters, digits, and a few special characters — perfect for encoding query parameter values. Our 'Encode All' option converts every non-alphanumeric character for maximum safety.