How to use it
- Choose Encode or Decode and paste your text.
- Encoding one value (like a search term or a parameter) is the default. Tick "It's a whole address" to encode a full link but keep its structure.
- Paste a full address starting with https:// to see its parts and every query parameter, decoded.
How URL encoding works
Web addresses can only contain a small set of characters. Anything else, such as spaces, accents or symbols with a special meaning like & and ?, is turned into bytes using UTF-8 and each byte is written as % followed by two hexadecimal digits. This is called percent-encoding, and the rules are in RFC 3986.
"Spaces as +" follows the older rule used when web forms send data (application/x-www-form-urlencoded), where a space becomes + instead of %20.
Frequently asked questions
Should I encode a value or the whole address?
Encode each value on its own before you put it into an address: a search term containing & would otherwise split into two parameters. "Whole address" mode is for fixing a full link that has spaces or accents in it, without breaking its slashes and question mark.
Why does decoding fail?
A % must be followed by two hexadecimal digits (0–9, A–F), and the bytes must make valid UTF-8 text. A lone % or a link cut short in the middle of a character can't be decoded.