Enter the text that you wish to encode or decode:
Okay, deep breath.
Here’s the deal:
URLs are picky. Like, super picky.
They only like a small handful of characters — letters, numbers, and a few safe symbols like -, _, ., and ~.
But guess what? We internet people use way more characters than that.
Spaces, ampersands, slashes, quotes, emojis (why not?), exclamation points, and yeah, a lot of “weird” stuff.
So when you try to send something like this through a URL:
arduino
https://example.com/search?query=this & that
You’re basically breaking the rules.
Because that space ( ) and ampersand (&) mean different things in URL-land.
So browsers (and servers) get confused.
They go, “Yo, I thought & means new parameter. Why’s it in your query?!”
And boom — broken link, bad requests, form fails, or worse… nothing happens at all.
So the solution?
You encode it.
That’s where URL Encoding comes in.
It turns problematic characters into safe, machine-readable code — using something called percent encoding.
Like:
space becomes %20
: becomes %3A
/ becomes %2F
& becomes %26
+ becomes %2B
So your broken link:
arduino
https://example.com/search?query=this & that
Becomes:
perl
https://example.com/search?query=this%20%26%20that
Clean. Functional. Happy browser. Happy you.
Let’s say you’ve got a URL like this:
perl
https://mywebsite.com/api/data?key=abc%23123%26type%3Djson
Good luck reading that. ?
So you decode it.
Suddenly it becomes:
bash
https://mywebsite.com/api/data?key=abc#123&type=json
Now it makes sense again.
So URL decoding is all about turning that encoded gibberish back into something readable, friendly, and understandable by humans like us.
This tool is your translator between human-friendly text and URL-safe code.
You paste in:
ini
name=Cartoon Tamilan & mood=? coder
Click ENCODE, and it gives you:
perl
name=Cartoon%20Tamilan%20%26%20mood%3D%F0%9F%94%A5%20coder
Then you copy it. Paste it wherever — in a form, an API, a code snippet, whatever.
No breakage. No server-side tantrums.
Just good vibes.
Likewise, if you’ve already got a bunch of percent-encoded junk, you paste it in and hit DECODE — and boom. It turns back into something that doesn’t make your eyes bleed.
You don’t have to be a hardcore coder to bump into URL encoding.
Here's who needs it on the regular:
Working with GET or POST requests? Query strings? Form data? URL parameters?
You need encoding. Otherwise, stuff breaks fast.
Ever built a UTM-tagged campaign URL? If your parameters aren’t encoded right, your analytics get messy AF.
Tracking IDs, long referral URLs, dynamic parameters… you gotta encode that mess to make it work across browsers and platforms.
APIs are literal. You send them a poorly formatted URL, and they will reject your request like an ex who’s moved on.
Google Sheets, Excel, automation tools (Zapier, Integromat, etc.) — if you’re stitching URLs together, you better encode those suckers.
I once built a contact form with a redirect URL like:
bash
/thankyou?name=John Smith&status=done
Guess what? The space in John Smith broke the whole thing.
User got an error, analytics didn’t fire, and I screamed into a pillow.
Fixed it by encoding:
bash
/thankyou?name=John%20Smith&status=done
Boom. Smooth redirect. Pillow safe.
Had an affiliate URL that looked like this:
perl
https://vendor.com/?ref=myuser&product=web tools bundle (summer 2025)
Every time I posted it, it broke at the (. Lost tracking. Lost commission.
Encoded it:
perl
https://vendor.com/?ref=myuser&product=web%20tools%20bundle%20%28summer%202025%29
Started tracking perfectly. Money flowed. All good.
Running a Google ad with this URL:
arduino
https://example.com/page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=best summer deals
Without encoding, the space in "best summer deals" broke the tag.
Decoded it, got this:
ini
utm_campaign=best%20summer%20deals
Analytics fixed. Crisis averted.
You don’t need a PhD or a paid subscription. These tools are free and frictionless:
Super straightforward
Just paste, encode, or decode
Works instantly, no login
Clean interface
Also shows ASCII equivalents (if you’re nerdy like that)
Minimalistic, no ads
Also includes base64 and HTML encoders
Ultimate nerd tool
Encode, decode, chain operations, inspect headers, and more
Bonus: feels like you’re hacking the Matrix
Built into most API workflows
Encodes parameters inside REST requests
Encoding seems simple, but a few mistakes can wreck your day:
You encode & to %26. Then your system encodes that % into %25, and suddenly your URL is unreadable.
Don’t encode something that’s already encoded.
You don’t encode the entire link! Just the parts that need it — like query parameters, path segments, etc.
Encoding / or : will break your link entirely.
Anything user-generated or dynamic? ALWAYS encode it before stuffing it into a URL.
Look… URL encoding won’t get you likes on Twitter.
It won’t impress your date.
And it probably won’t change your life.
But you know what it will do?
It’ll save your forms.
It’ll clean your links.
It’ll keep your UTM tags intact.
It’ll make your API calls work.
It’ll stop your app from crashing on a stupid&.
So yeah — keep a URL Encoder / Decoder tool in your toolbox.
Use it often.
Respect it always.
And if you’re ever unsure… just encode it. It’s better safe than 404’d.
