Question 1

Is this URL encoder free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, completely — every feature on this page is free, including Full URI mode, the space-encoding choice, all ~27 legacy character sets, batch line encoding/decoding, double-encoding, the query string parameter table, and the SVG data URI generator. There's no sign-up, no ads, and nothing held back behind a "Pro" tier, unlike the lead-generation SaaS upsell one of the seven competitors tested for this tool pushes on the same page.

Question 2

Do I need to download or install anything?

Accepted Answer

No. Everything runs in this browser tab — paste your text, URL, or query string, and there's nothing to install and nothing left behind when you close it.

Question 3

Does this tool upload my data anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. Every conversion — encoding, decoding, the query string table, and the SVG data URI generator — runs entirely in your browser as plain string processing, with no server round trip at any point. This tool doesn't even have a server to upload to, so whatever you convert here, including a session token or an internal hostname hidden inside a query string, never leaves your device. That's a stricter guarantee than 2 of the 7 competitors tested, one of which defaults to a full-page server round trip and the other of which wasn't independently confirmed as always client-side.

Question 4

What is URL encoding?

Accepted Answer

URL encoding, also known as percent encoding, replaces characters a URL can't safely carry — spaces, symbols like & and =, and non-ASCII text — with a "%" followed by two hex digits representing that character's byte value (a space becomes %20, for example). It's what lets a URL, a query string, or form data carry arbitrary text safely through a system that only guarantees a narrow set of characters will survive intact.

Question 5

What is percent-encoding?

Accepted Answer

Percent-encoding is the formal name for URL encoding — the two terms describe exactly the same thing. "Percent" refers to the "%" character every encoded byte starts with, like %20 for a space or %26 for an ampersand.

Question 6

Is URL encoding the same as encryption?

Accepted Answer

No — URL encoding provides zero secrecy. It's a reversible, publicly documented substitution (RFC 3986), and anyone, including this very page, can decode it back to the original text instantly. It exists to make text safe for a URL to carry, not to hide it from anyone.

Question 7

How do I URL encode a string or query parameter?

Accepted Answer

Switch to Encode, then type or paste your text — the URL-encoded output appears instantly below, with no separate "Convert" button. Leave Mode on Component for a single value like a query parameter; switch to Full URI only if you're encoding an entire URL and want to keep its structural characters (like : / ? #) intact.

Question 8

How do I decode a URL-encoded string?

Accepted Answer

Switch to Decode and paste the percent-encoded string — the decoded text appears instantly below. If decoding fails, this tool tells you exactly what's wrong and where, rather than showing a raw browser error.

Question 9

What's the difference between encoding a full URL and encoding a query string value?

Accepted Answer

Component mode encodes everything that isn't a plain letter, digit, or a small set of safe punctuation — the right choice for a single value, like one query parameter, since characters like & and = need to stay escaped or they'd be read as extra parameters. Full URI mode instead leaves RFC 3986's reserved delimiters (: / ? # [ ] @ ! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =) untouched, since encoding those in an already-complete URL would break its structure instead of protecting it.

Question 10

Should spaces be encoded as %20 or +?

Accepted Answer

%20 is the correct, unambiguous choice for a URL or a modern query string, and it's this tool's default. "+" for space is an older convention specific to application/x-www-form-urlencoded form data, still common in query strings built by HTML forms. Use the "Space as" control to choose explicitly — one competitor tested for this tool silently uses + everywhere while labeling itself generic "URL encoding," with no way to tell or change it; this tool always shows, and lets you pick, which one you're getting.

Question 11

What does %20 (or %40, %25, %2F) mean in a URL?

Accepted Answer

Each is one percent-encoded character: %20 is a space, %40 is @, %25 is a literal % sign, and %2F is /. In general, the two hex digits after the % are that character's byte value — paste any percent-encoded string into Decode above to see exactly what it spells out.

Question 12

Can I encode a string more than once?

Accepted Answer

Yes — raise "Passes" above 1 to apply encoding (or decoding) repeatedly, useful for debugging a value that's been encoded more than once somewhere in a pipeline (a literal % becomes %2525 after two encoding passes, for example). It's a plain, mechanical nested-encoding debugging aid, not a way to bypass anything.

Question 13

Can I break a query string into its individual parameters?

Accepted Answer

Yes — paste a query string, or a full URL (its query string is extracted automatically), into the "Query string parameters" section below, and it splits into editable key/value rows. Edit any row and the reassembled, correctly encoded query string updates live underneath. No competitor tested for this tool offers this.

Question 14

Can I create a URL-encoded SVG for CSS or HTML?

Accepted Answer

Yes — paste raw SVG markup into the "SVG to data URI" section and it produces a ready-to-use data:image/svg+xml,... URI, plus copy-paste CSS background-image and HTML <img> snippets. Percent-encoding an SVG this way is typically smaller than base64-encoding the same markup, since only a handful of characters need escaping instead of inflating the whole thing by roughly a third.

Question 15

How do I get the real link out of a Microsoft Safe Links URL?

Accepted Answer

Paste the whole safelinks.protection.outlook.com link into Decode — the real destination is carried as a plain, standard percent-encoded url= query parameter on the wrapper link, so this tool's ordinary decode function reveals it directly, no special handling needed.

Question 16

Can this tool decode Proofpoint URL Defense links?

Accepted Answer

No, and being honest about that matters more than pretending otherwise: unlike Safe Links, Proofpoint URL Defense uses its own proprietary substitution scheme specifically designed so plain percent-decoding doesn't reveal the original link. Reverse-engineering that undocumented format is a different job from standard URL encoding, and this tool doesn't attempt it.

Question 17

Why am I getting an error when I decode my string?

Accepted Answer

The most common cause is a lone % not followed by two hex digits — this tool catches that and tells you the exact position, rather than showing a raw "URI malformed" browser exception the way an unhandled decodeURIComponent() call would. Also check that Mode and Character set match what actually encoded the string in the first place.

Question 18

Can I share a link to my conversion?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Share compresses your current conversion, including its mode and options, directly into the link itself and copies it to your clipboard; opening that link loads the same conversion straight back in, with nothing ever stored on a server. Very large conversions won't fit in a link at all — past a clear size limit, this tool says so honestly instead of handing out a link that silently breaks, and Download or Copy still work at any size.

Question 19

Is this a browser extension?

Accepted Answer

No — this is a website, not an installable browser extension, so there's nothing to add to Chrome or any other browser. If you specifically need a URL decoder inside your browser toolbar, that's a different kind of tool; this page covers the same paste-and-convert job with nothing to install.

Question 20

Does this work on mobile, and in every browser?

Accepted Answer

Yes — encoding, decoding, every mode, all legacy character sets, batch mode, the query string table, and the SVG data URI generator all work on any modern browser, desktop or mobile: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari all handle it.

URL Encode & Decode

Query string parameters

SVG to data URI

Frequently asked questions

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