URL Encoder / Decoder

Enter the text that you wish to encode or decode:

About URL Encoder / Decoder

Our online URL decoder tool transforms encoded URLs into a format you can read easily. During URL encoding, certain characters are replaced with their ASCII code equivalents. This is necessary to ensure the URL formats correctly for transmission over the Internet. Our tool takes your encoded URL and returns it in a decoded, readable format.

URL Encoding
Percent-encoding, also called URL encoding, is a method used to encode information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) under specific conditions. Although it's widely referred to as URL encoding, it's used across all types of URIs, including Uniform Resource Locators (URL) and Uniform Resource Names (URN). This encoding is also essential when preparing data for the application/x-www-form-urlencoded media type, commonly used when submitting HTML form data in HTTP requests.

Types of URI Characters
Characters in a URI are classified as either reserved or unreserved. Reserved characters may have special meanings in certain contexts. For instance, the forward slash (/) separates different parts of a URL. Unreserved characters, however, do not carry special meanings. Using percent-encoding, reserved characters are represented by specific character sequences. The definitions of reserved and unreserved characters, and the specific meanings of reserved characters, have evolved through various revisions of the specifications that govern URIs and URI schemes.

Percent-Encoding Reserved Characters
When a reserved character has a specific use in a particular context, and a URI scheme requires that character for a different purpose, it must be percent-encoded. This process involves converting the character into its ASCII byte value and then representing this value as a pair of hexadecimal digits. These digits are prefixed with a percent sign (%), which acts as an escape character, and are used in the URI to replace the original reserved character. If the character is non-ASCII, it is first converted into its UTF-8 byte sequence, which is then encoded similarly.

For example, the reserved character /, if used in the "path" component of a URI, typically serves as a delimiter between path segments. If a URI scheme requires a / within a path segment, it should be encoded as %2F or %2f.

Reserved characters that do not serve a specific purpose in a particular context might also be percent-encoded, but this does not change their meaning.

URI Queries
In the "query" part of a URI (the section after the ? character), a / is still considered a reserved character. However, it often has no special role unless specified by the URI scheme. It does not need to be percent-encoded if it does not serve a reserved purpose.

URIs that only differ by whether a reserved character is percent-encoded or appears literally are generally not seen as equivalent unless it's clear that the characters in question have no reserved roles. This clarity depends on the rules for reserved characters set by individual URI schemes.