About the URL Encode
A URL may contain only a limited set of characters, so spaces, ampersands, slashes and non-ASCII text have to be percent-encoded. Which characters need encoding depends on where the text goes, and this tool gives you the three cases. Component mode (the JavaScript encodeURIComponent) encodes everything that is special in a query value, including &, =, / and ?; use it for a single parameter value.
Full-URL mode (encodeURI) leaves the structural characters of a URL alone, so you can encode a whole address that contains spaces or accents without breaking its slashes and query separators. Form mode encodes like a submitted HTML form, turning spaces into +, which is what application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies use.
All three encode non-ASCII text as UTF-8 percent-escapes, so café becomes caf%C3%A9, which every server understands. The URL Decode tool reverses any of them.
How to use
- Paste the text on the left.
- Choose the mode for where the text will go: a single value, a whole URL, or a form body.
- Copy the encoded output.
Common questions
- Which mode should I use for a query parameter?
- Component mode. It encodes &, = and / so the value cannot be mistaken for URL structure.
- Why is a space sometimes %20 and sometimes +?
- %20 is standard percent-encoding; + is the form-encoding convention. Servers accept both in query strings, but only %20 is valid in a path.
- Does it encode accented characters correctly?
- Yes, as UTF-8 percent-escapes, which is the modern standard.