Encode text for safe use in a URL, or decode a percent-encoded URL back to plain text. Instant and private.
A URL can only safely contain a limited set of characters, so anything outside that set, spaces, ampersands, question marks, slashes, accented letters, or emoji, has to be rewritten as percent codes like %20 or %E2%9C%93. This is called percent-encoding, and it is what keeps a query parameter from breaking the link it lives in. A URL encoder does that conversion for you, and the decoder turns the cryptic percent codes back into the plain text they stand for.
To encode, paste your text or a full URL into the input and the tool replaces every unsafe character with its percent code as you type. To go the other way, drop in a string full of things like %20 and %3D and it reconstructs the readable original. There is nothing to configure, the result updates live, and you can copy it straight out for a link, an API call, or a config value.
One thing worth knowing is that encoding a whole URL is different from encoding a single value meant to sit inside one. When you encode a value, characters like the slash and colon that structure a URL also get escaped, which is exactly right for a query parameter but would break a link if you applied it to the entire address. This tool handles the common case cleanly, and if you double-encode by accident you will see percent signs themselves turned into %25, which is the usual sign to decode once and try again.
Use this rather than guessing at the codes by hand, which is error prone, or pulling up a language console just to call one encode function. It is quicker for a one-off, and it works the same whether you are on a phone or a laptop.
Typical jobs include building a search or tracking link where a parameter contains spaces or an ampersand, decoding a messy redirect URL so you can read what was actually passed, preparing a value for an API request that rejects raw special characters, and un-mangling text someone pasted that arrived full of percent codes. It is a small task that comes up constantly in web and marketing work.
The conversion happens entirely in your browser. Your text never leaves your device, there is no upload and no sign-up, and the tool is free to use as often as you like. Because it runs locally the only real limit is your own device's memory, which for ordinary URLs and text is never a concern.
Encoding a full URL leaves structural characters like the slash and colon intact so the link still works, while encoding a value escapes those too because they would otherwise be mistaken for URL structure. Use value encoding for anything you are dropping into a single parameter.
In the path portion of a URL a space becomes %20, but in older form-style query strings it can appear as a plus sign, since both conventions exist. Percent encoding with %20 is the safer, more widely accepted choice for most modern uses.
Your string was probably encoded twice, so one pass of decoding only peels off the outer layer. Decode it a second time and you should land on the readable original.
Yes. Characters outside the basic set are converted to their UTF-8 percent codes, which is why a single emoji can turn into several percent groups. Decoding reverses this and restores the original character.
The conversion runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere, so no server sees your string. That said, avoid putting secrets in URLs in the first place, because they tend to end up in logs and browser history regardless of encoding.
Plain letters, digits, and a handful of unreserved characters pass through untouched, so encoding safe text simply returns it unchanged. Only the characters that actually need escaping are rewritten.
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