URL encode or decode a string online

How it works

1. 1

   Pick a direction: Encode for raw text, Decode for percent codes.

2. 2

   Paste the text or encoded string.

3. 3

   Press the button for the direction you picked.

4. 4

   Copy the result.

About the URL Encode/Decode

Spaces, ampersands, slashes and non-English characters have special meaning or are not allowed in parts of a URL, so they are written as percent codes like %20 and %26. This tool percent-encodes text so it can be placed safely in a query parameter or path segment, and decodes encoded strings back into readable text, including UTF-8 characters such as é or emoji.

What you can do

• Encode text for use as a single URL component, escaping characters like &, =, ?, / and spaces.
• Decode percent-encoded text, including multi-byte UTF-8 sequences.
• Swap the result into the input to flip direction and check a round trip.
• Copy the output, or create a Share link that restores the same input and mode.

When it works best

• Building a redirect URL that carries another URL as a query parameter.
• Reading tracking parameters or search terms in a long link from analytics or email.
• Preparing a filename or search phrase to put into an API request by hand.

Things to know

• Encoding and decoding are done in the browser. Share links contain the text, so avoid sharing tokens or private URLs.
• Encoding follows encodeURIComponent, which escapes slashes and colons too. Paste only the part you are encoding, not a whole URL, or its structure will be escaped.
• Decoding does not turn + into a space, as HTML form encoding does, and a stray % that is not followed by two hex digits is reported as an error.
• For international domain names, use the Punycode Converter. For HTML special characters, use HTML Entity Encode/Decode.

Frequently asked questions