Tools

URL encoder and decoder

Percent-encode a query value, or a whole URL, without breaking its structure.

Runs in your browserEncoding175
Free

Input

0 BFree up to 50.0 KB

Result

The result will appear here.

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The distinction that trips people up is between encoding a value and encoding a whole URL. Encoding a component escapes the separators — ? & = / — because inside a parameter they are data. Encoding a whole URL leaves those separators alone because they are structure. Both are offered here, and choosing the wrong one is the usual cause of a link that almost works.

How it works

  • Component mode escapes everything that is not unreserved, which is what a query value needs.
  • Full-URL mode preserves the reserved characters that give a URL its shape.
  • Decoding a malformed escape reports the problem rather than throwing.

Where your data goes

Nowhere. This tool runs entirely in your browser: the text you paste is processed by the page and is never transmitted to a server or written to a log.

When a run costs points, a one-line summary is saved to your own history so you can find it again. The summary records the shape of the run — sizes, counts, the values you looked up — never the content you pasted.

What it costs

Free up to 50.0 KB per run without an account. Past that, a run costs 1 points and is saved to your history.

Points come from signing up, checking in daily, commenting and completing your profile.

See how points work

Common questions

When do I need component mode?
Whenever the text is going inside a parameter — a search term, a redirect target, an email address. If a value can contain & or =, it must be component-encoded or it will split the query string.
Why is a space sometimes %20 and sometimes +?
%20 is correct everywhere. The + convention comes from HTML form submission and is only valid in a query string, never in a path. This tool always produces %20.
Do I need to encode Chinese characters?
Browsers display them undecoded and handle it for you, but anything the URL is passed to programmatically may not. Encoding them is always safe.

The open-source behind it

This tool is a self-contained implementation. unshiftio/querystringify (MIT) does the same job as a library — if you need this behaviour inside your own program, start there rather than calling a web page.

unshiftio/querystringify

Also known as

  • url encode
  • url decode
  • percent encoding
  • urlencode online
  • query string encoder