DevUtilsNow
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Encoding, Hashing & Security

URL Encode / Decode

Percent-encode and decode URLs and query string components safely.

No upload, ever No account needed Works offline
Input (URL or text)
0 characters
Auto-updated
// how to use it

Three steps, no reading required.

Paste your input

Drop text, code, or data into the input pane — from an API response, a file, anywhere.

Pick a mode

Toggle the modes above the output. The result updates instantly as you type.

Copy the result

Grab the output with Copy, or fix the error shown if the input is invalid.

// examples

Try it with a sample.

Sample 1
https://example.com/search?q=hello world&lang=en
TYPICAL ONLINE TOOL

One mode fits all, badly

  • Doesn't say whether it is encoding a whole URL or a value
  • Sends your URLs, which may contain tokens in the query string
  • Leaves you to guess why & and = broke
DEVUTILSNOW

Component or full URL, your call

  • Component, full-URL or form (+ for spaces) encoding
  • 40+ character sets, line-by-line and 76-character split options
  • Runs in the browser; nothing is stored
// faq

Questions worth answering upfront.

No. URL encoding and decoding happen entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.

URL encoding (percent-encoding) replaces characters that are unsafe in a URL — like spaces and symbols — with a percent sign followed by their hex value, so the URL stays valid.

Encoding a component escapes characters like & and = that are meaningful in a full URL, so use component encoding for query values and full-URL encoding for whole addresses. Form data encoding is what HTML forms send: like a component, but spaces become +.

Percent-encoding escapes bytes, so text is first turned into bytes. Modern URLs use UTF-8, but older systems may expect ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1252, where é is %E9 rather than %C3%A9. When decoding, Auto-detect tries UTF-8 first and falls back to Windows-1252.

In query strings and form bodies, + means a space, so it is decoded as one by default. Untick Treat + as space when decoding a path or any value where + is a literal plus sign.

Yes. Every tool on DevUtilsNow is free with no account required.

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// reference

Look it up

REFERENCE

Content-Type header

application/x-www-form-urlencoded and friends

// related guides

Guides that pair with this tool

All guides →
Aug 28, 2026 · 2 min read Character Encoding: ASCII, Unicode & UTF-8 Explained Why text is bytes, how ASCII, Unicode, and UTF-8 relate, and what causes those mojibake question-mark characters — explained for developers. URL Encode / Decode Aug 9, 2026 · 1 min read URL Encoding Explained: When and How to Percent-Encode What URL (percent) encoding is, which characters need it, the space and plus-sign gotcha, and when to encode. URL Encode / Decode

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Last updated: Oct 9, 2026