Web
Encode a URL or text string using percent-encoding, or decode a percent-encoded string back to plain text. Choose between encoding the full URL or encoding a query parameter value.
Generated output
Enter a URL or text string to encode or decode.
URL encoding (percent-encoding) replaces characters that are not allowed in URLs with a % sign followed by their two-digit hexadecimal ASCII code. For example, a space becomes %20 and a hash becomes %23.
Component encoding (encodeURIComponent) encodes everything except unreserved characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, -, _, ., ~). Full URL encoding (encodeURI) preserves structural URL characters like /, ?, =, and & so the URL structure remains intact. Use component encoding for query parameter values; use full URL encoding for complete URLs.
The query parameter value "hello world & more" component-encoded becomes: hello%20world%20%26%20more.
The full URL "https://example.com/search?q=hello world" encoded with encodeURI becomes: https://example.com/search?q=hello%20world — only the space is encoded, not the structural characters.
Answers to common questions about this generator and how it works.
Use component encoding (encodeURIComponent) when encoding a single query parameter value that may contain &, =, or other URL-structural characters. Use full URL encoding (encodeURI) when encoding a complete URL where you want to preserve its structure.
Both %20 and + represent a space in URLs, but in different contexts. %20 is the correct percent-encoding. The + convention for spaces is specific to HTML form submissions (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) and is not universally valid.
Unreserved characters — A–Z, a–z, 0–9, hyphen (-), underscore (_), period (.), and tilde (~) — are safe in any URL context. All other characters should be percent-encoded.
%2F is an encoded forward slash and %3A is an encoded colon. They appear when a parameter value itself contains characters that would otherwise be interpreted as URL structure. For example, a URL parameter containing another URL needs its slashes and colons encoded.
No. HTML entity encoding (e.g. & for &) is for HTML context. URL encoding is for URL context. They are separate encoding schemes and should not be confused or mixed.
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