Free URL Encoder — Encode Any URL or Query String Instantly

Free URL Encoder and Decoder — encode or decode URLs and query strings online

Encode any URL or query string instantly for web use using percent-encoding (RFC 3986). All processing runs locally in your browser with 100% privacy — no data is ever uploaded.

Quick Answer

How do I encode a URL for free?

Paste your URL or query string into the input field and click 'Encode'. The tool instantly applies percent-encoding to all reserved characters and spaces, making it safe for use in web addresses and APIs.

Developer Tools★ Free forever✓ No account🔒 No upload📴 Works offlineUpdated April 28, 2026

Free Online URL Encoder & Decoder

Encode special characters in URLs to percent-encoding format, or decode a percent-encoded URL back to readable text — essential for working with query strings, API requests, and web forms.

Browse all toolsBrowse more developer tools toolsBuilt by Achraf A., Full-Stack Developer · Morocco
Web Utility

Free URL Encoder / Decoder

Safely encode text for use in web links or decode percent-encoded URLs back into readable text. Processed instantly and locally.

1. Text to Encode
2. Result Output
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What is URL Encode/Decode?

URL Encoder & Decoder is a free browser-based tool for converting text to and from URL-safe percent-encoding format. URL encoding — also called percent-encoding — replaces characters that are not allowed in URLs (spaces, ampersands, equals signs, accented letters, etc.) with a % followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII or Unicode value.

URL encoding is required any time you include text in a query string or path segment. A URL like `https://example.com/search?q=hello world` is invalid because spaces are not allowed. The correct encoding is `https://example.com/search?q=hello%20world`. Browsers handle this automatically for user-typed URLs, but developers building APIs, web scrapers, redirects, and form handlers often need to encode or decode values manually.

Common cases where URL encoding matters: passing search queries as query parameters, building API request URLs programmatically, working with redirect targets, handling special characters in form submissions, and debugging 400 Bad Request errors caused by un-encoded characters in query strings.

How to use URL Encode/Decode in 3 steps
  1. 1

    Paste the text or URL you want to encode or decode

    Enter the raw text string or paste a percent-encoded URL into the input field.

  2. 2

    Choose encode or decode

    Select whether you want to convert plain text to percent-encoding (encode) or convert a percent-encoded string back to readable text (decode).

  3. 3

    Copy the result

    Copy the encoded or decoded output and use it in your API request, query string, redirect URL, or code.

Key features and benefits
  • Encodes and decodes URL percent-encoding instantly in the browser
  • Handles spaces, special characters, unicode, and query string delimiters
  • Useful for API development, query string building, and debugging bad URLs
  • No server upload — text stays in your browser
  • Supports both encodeURIComponent and full URL encoding modes
Common use cases

A developer builds an API request that includes a search query with spaces and special characters — uses the encoder to get the correct percent-encoded query string.

A marketer debugs a broken tracking URL where the UTM parameters contain ampersands that need encoding.

A backend engineer decodes an incoming request's query string to read the original text value sent by the client.

Why browser-based works better

A dedicated URL encoder is faster and less error-prone than writing encodeURIComponent() in a browser console or memorizing percent-encoding rules.

It handles the edge cases that catch developers — like whether to encode the entire URL or just the query string components — and shows the result immediately without any code.

You might also need

Continue this workflow with nearby browser-based tools so you can validate, convert, and ship output without context switching.

References and standards

URL Encode/Decode FAQs

Quick answers about the workflow, privacy, and where this tool fits in a broader job.

What is the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent?

encodeURI encodes a full URL — it leaves characters like / and ? intact because they are valid URL structure. encodeURIComponent encodes everything including those characters, making it safe for individual query parameter values.

Why is a space encoded as %20 or + in URLs?

Spaces are represented as %20 in standard percent-encoding (RFC 3986). The + sign is used instead of %20 in application/x-www-form-urlencoded format (HTML forms). Both are valid in different contexts.

Does URL encoding affect Chinese, Arabic, or accented characters?

Yes. Non-ASCII characters are encoded as their UTF-8 byte sequences in percent-encoded format. For example, the é character (U+00E9) encodes as %C3%A9.

Can I decode a full URL with query parameters?

Yes. Paste the full URL including the query string and the tool will decode all percent-encoded sequences back to readable text.

Is URL decoding the same as Base64 decoding?

No. URL encoding uses % followed by hex codes (e.g., %20 for space). Base64 encoding uses a completely different alphabet and is used for binary data, not URL safety.

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Built and maintained by

Achraf A.

Founder & developer — built and maintains every tool on this site

Last updated:

Tested in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on desktop and mobile.

The two functions that solve different problems

JavaScript has two URL encoding functions and they are not interchangeable. Getting this wrong is a real source of bugs.

  • encodeURI()Encodes a complete URL. Leaves structural characters intact: : / ? # [ ] @ ! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =. Use when you have a full URL and need to make it safe for embedding in HTML or an HTTP header.
  • encodeURIComponent()Encodes a URL component— a query parameter value, a path segment, a fragment. Encodes everything including structural characters. Use this when you're encoding a value that will be placed inside a URL, not the full URL itself. If you use encodeURI() on a query value that contains & or =, those characters won't be encoded and the URL will be parsed incorrectly.

Common scenarios where encoding goes wrong

  • Email in query stringuser+tag@example.com — the + in the email becomes a space when decoded if you use encodeURI instead of encodeURIComponent. The email arrives garbled.
  • Search queries with special charactersA search query containing & splits into multiple parameters. Always encodeURIComponent() search values.
  • Redirect URLs as parametersPassing a full URL as a query parameter: ?redirect=https://example.com/path?q=1 — the inner URL's ? and = will break the outer URL parser unless encodeURIComponent() is used on the value.

Related developer tools

TheFreeAITools — URL Encoder is a fully private, browser-based utility that applies percent-encoding (RFC 3986) to any URL or query string instantly. All processing runs locally on your device with JavaScript — your sensitive strings never leave your computer. Supports live preview, one-click copying, and includes a built-in decoder for two-way transformation. The fastest free way to encode URLs for web development in 2026, with no installs, no accounts, and no hidden limits.

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