URL Encode / Decode

URL encoding, also called percent-encoding, replaces characters that have a special meaning in a URL — or that aren't allowed in one — with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits. For example a space becomes %20 and an ampersand becomes %26. It lets you safely put arbitrary text, such as a search term or a value with slashes and question marks, inside a URL or query string without breaking its structure. Paste your text here and the encoded version appears instantly.

Use the Component mode (encodeURIComponent) when you are encoding a single piece of a URL, such as one query-string value or a path segment — it escapes reserved characters like / ? : @ & = + and # so they are treated as data, not structure. Use the Full URL mode (encodeURI) when you want to encode an entire URL while keeping it working: it leaves those structural characters intact and only escapes things like spaces. The Strict (RFC 3986) mode goes further and also escapes ! * ' ( ) for maximum compatibility.

Both can represent a space, but in different contexts. In a path or a generic URL a space is encoded as %20, while in an application/x-www-form-urlencoded query string (the format HTML forms submit) a space is traditionally encoded as a plus sign (+). Turn on "Encode space as +" when you are building form-style query data, and turn on "Decode + as space" when you are reading it back, so the conversion matches whichever convention your URL uses.

Decoding fails when the text isn't valid percent-encoding — usually a lone "%" that isn't followed by two hex digits (for example "100%" or "%zz"), or a truncated sequence. When that happens the tool shows a clear message instead of guessing. Fix or remove the stray "%" and it will decode; if your data uses + for spaces, enable "Decode + as space" so those are handled too.

Yes. It is completely free with no sign-up or limits, and every conversion runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript — the URLs and text you paste are never sent to or stored on any server. That also means it keeps working offline once the page has loaded, so you can safely encode or decode sensitive links and tokens.