What is URL Encoding?
URL encoding, also called percent-encoding, converts characters that aren't safe inside a URL into a % followed by their hexadecimal value. This lets URLs carry spaces, symbols, and non-ASCII text without breaking the structure of the address or being misinterpreted by browsers and servers.
How to Use This URL Encoder
- Paste your text or URL into the Input box.
- Toggle Full URL mode if you're encoding an entire URL rather than a single value, so structural characters like : and / are preserved.
- Click Encode or Decode, then copy the result with Copy Output.
When Do You Need URL Encoding?
URL encoding is required whenever a value being inserted into a URL — a search query, form field, or path segment — could contain spaces, ampersands, question marks, or other reserved characters. Without encoding, these characters can break the URL's structure or be parsed as something other than intended, such as a query string being cut short at an unescaped &.
Frequently Asked Questions
URL encoding vs Base64?
URL encoding (percent-encoding) escapes characters with %XX hex codes specifically so a string is safe inside a URL. Base64 is a general binary-to-text scheme unrelated to URL structure. They serve different purposes and are not interchangeable.
When to encode URLs?
Encode whenever a value you're inserting into a URL — a query parameter, form value, or path segment — might contain spaces, symbols, or non-ASCII characters that would otherwise break the URL or change its meaning.
What characters need encoding?
Reserved characters such as space, &, ?, #, %, +, and non-ASCII characters must be percent-encoded. Letters, digits, and a small set of unreserved characters (- _ . ~) can remain as-is.
Difference encodeURI vs encodeURIComponent?
encodeURIComponent escapes nearly every special character and is meant for individual values like query parameters. encodeURI preserves characters that are structurally part of a URL (such as :, /, ?, &) and is meant for encoding a full URL.