Free URL Encoder/Decoder Online – url encoder Utility

What is URL Encoding and Decoding?

URL encoding (sometimes called percent-encoding) is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Since URLs can only be sent over the internet using the ASCII character set, any characters outside this set—or special reserved characters like spaces, question marks, and ampersands—must be translated into a valid format.

URL decoding is the exact opposite process. It takes a percent-encoded string (where special characters are represented by a `%` followed by hexadecimal digits) and converts it back to its original readable format.

When Should I Encode a URL?

You should encode a string when you are passing it as a query parameter in a URL string. For example, if you are passing an email address or a search term containing spaces to another web page, you must encode it to prevent the browser from misinterpreting the URL structure.

Examples

• Space: becomes %20
• Exclamation Mark:! becomes %21
• Hash/Pound:# becomes %23
• Ampersand:& becomes %26
• Full URL example:https://example.com/search?q=hello world becomes https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhello%20world