Spaces become %20, ! becomes %21, & becomes %26, and accented characters like รฉ become %C3%A9
| Character | Encoded Form | Why It's Encoded |
|---|---|---|
| Space | %20 (or +) | URLs cannot contain raw spaces |
| & | %26 | Used as query parameter separator |
| = | %3D | Used for key=value pairs in query strings |
| ? | %3F | Marks start of query string |
| # | %23 | Marks fragment/anchor in URLs |
| + | %2B | Has special meaning (space) in some contexts |
| / | %2F | Path separator in URLs |
| รฉ (accented) | %C3%A9 | Non-ASCII characters use UTF-8 encoding |
Select the Encode tab to convert plain text to URL-safe format, or the Decode tab to convert a percent-encoded URL back to readable text.
Paste the raw text you want to encode, or the encoded URL/query string you want to decode. The tool accepts full URLs, query parameters, or just fragments.
Select encodeURIComponent (encodes everything โ best for query values), encodeURI (preserves URL structure characters), or raw percent-encoding for maximum compatibility.
The encoded/decoded result appears instantly. Click Copy to grab the result and use it in your code, browser address bar, API, or form submission.
Encode query parameter values before appending them to API request URLs.
Encode email addresses, subjects, and body text in mailto: links.
Encode search terms with special characters, spaces, and non-English text.
Encode URLs with Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, or other non-ASCII characters.
Encode product filter query strings with special characters in category names.
Decode garbled URL parameters from browser address bars or server logs.
Use encodeURIComponent for individual query parameter values โ it encodes everything including &, =, ?. Use encodeURI for full URLs โ it preserves structural characters like / and ?.
%20 is standard in modern URLs and APIs. The + sign for spaces is a legacy format from HTML form submissions (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). Most APIs prefer %20.
Non-ASCII characters are first converted to UTF-8 bytes, then each byte is percent-encoded. This is why รฉ becomes %C3%A9 โ two bytes in UTF-8.
When you see a garbled URL like example.com?q=caf%C3%A9, paste it in the decoder to instantly see it as example.com?q=cafรฉ โ great for debugging redirects and logs.