URL Encoder & Decoder
Encode special characters or decode percent-encoded URLs instantly.
📋 Common URL Encoded Characters
| Character | Encoded | Description |
|---|---|---|
| (space) | %20 or + | Space character |
| ! | %21 | Exclamation mark |
| # | %23 | Hash/Pound |
| $ | %24 | Dollar sign |
| % | %25 | Percent |
| & | %26 | Ampersand |
| + | %2B | Plus sign |
| / | %2F | Forward slash |
| = | %3D | Equals sign |
| ? | %3F | Question mark |
| @ | %40 | At sign |
🚀 How URL Encoding Works
URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a method to encode special characters in URLs. Characters that are not allowed in URLs or have special meaning are replaced with a percent sign (%) followed by their hexadecimal ASCII value.
When to Use URL Encoding
- Query Parameters - When passing data via URL parameters
- Special Characters - Spaces, symbols, and non-ASCII characters
- Form Data - When submitting forms via GET method
- API Requests - When building API endpoints with dynamic data
💡 Pro Tip: Use encodeURIComponent() in JavaScript for encoding
query parameter values, and encodeURI() for encoding complete URLs while
preserving the URL structure.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
URL encoding converts characters that are not allowed in URLs into a format that can be transmitted over the internet. It replaces unsafe characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits representing the character's ASCII code.
Both represent spaces, but in different contexts. %20 is the standard URL encoding for spaces and works everywhere. The + sign is used specifically in query strings (application/x-www-form-urlencoded format), typically when submitting HTML forms.
URLs can only contain a limited set of ASCII characters. Special characters like spaces, &, =, ?, and non-English characters must be encoded to be properly transmitted and interpreted by web servers and browsers.
No, they are different. URL encoding (percent-encoding) converts individual characters to their hex representation with a % prefix. Base64 encoding converts binary data to ASCII text using a 64-character alphabet. They serve different purposes.
Unreserved characters that don't need encoding include: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, hyphen (-), underscore (_), period (.), and tilde (~). All other characters should be encoded for maximum compatibility.