URL Decoder / Encoder
Paste a URL or percent-encoded text and click Decode or Encode. The result replaces the text in the box.
Decoder: ready
[01]Reference
How it works
Encode
Encode percent-encodes your text as UTF-8. Every character except A–Z, a–z, 0–9 and - _ . ! ~ * ( ) becomes %XX. Spaces become %20, not +. Apostrophes become %27.
- in
- it's 100% free
- out
- it%27s%20100%25%20free
Decode
Decode turns each + into a space, then reads %XX as UTF-8. Write a literal plus as %2B. A stray % or invalid byte such as %E9 stays as it is, and the status line counts what was skipped. Double-encoded? Decode again.
- in
- https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F%3Fq%3Dhello+world
- out
- https://example.com/?q=hello world
[02]FAQ
Common questions
Q:What is URL encoding?
URL encoding, or percent-encoding, replaces characters that are reserved or unsafe in a URL with a % and two hex digits, taken from their UTF-8 bytes. A space becomes %20 and é becomes %C3%A9. It lets characters like & and ? travel inside a URL without changing its meaning.
Q:Why does my + become a space when I decode?
In query strings, + conventionally stands for a space, so Decode turns every + into one. Encode uses %20 instead, which works anywhere in a URL. To keep a literal plus sign through decoding, write it as %2B.
Q:How do I decode a double-encoded URL?
Click Decode again. Each click removes one layer: %2520 becomes %20, and a second click turns that into a space. Undo restores the text from before the last Decode, Encode or Clear.
Q:What happens to a stray % or invalid characters?
Nothing breaks. A stray % (as in 100%) and bytes that are not valid UTF-8, such as %E9 from old Latin-1 encodings, are left exactly as they are. The status line under the box says how many were skipped.
Q:Is my text sent to a server?
No. Decoding and encoding run in your browser with JavaScript, and your text never leaves your browser. The tool is free, has no ads and needs no sign-up.
> Initialize protocol
Beyond the decoder.
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