URL Encoder

How to use URL Encoder

1. 1Paste the text or the URL.
2. 2Choose whether it is one value or a whole address.
3. 3Read the result, or the parameter table underneath.
4. 4Copy what you need.

One value, or a whole address

This is the distinction that breaks links. Encoding one value escapes the separators, so a slash becomes %2F and an ampersand becomes %26, which is correct for something going into a query parameter. Encoding a whole address leaves those separators alone, because a URL needs its own slashes and question marks to work.

Pick the wrong one and the failure is quiet: an address encoded as a value turns into a single unusable string, and a value encoded as an address lets an & inside it split the parameter in two.

The plus sign problem

In a query string built by an HTML form, a plus means a space. Everywhere else in a URL, a plus means a plus. Decoding normally leaves it alone, and there is a separate option for form-encoded data that turns it back into a space.

That is why a password with a + in it sometimes arrives with a space instead, and the two different decodings here are how you tell which happened.

Taking a URL apart

A campaign URL with ten parameters is unreadable in one line. Paste it and the protocol, host, port, path and fragment are separated out, with each query parameter on its own row and its value already decoded.

Repeated parameters are kept as separate rows rather than merged, since an API that accepts id=1&id=2 means something different by that than by id=2 alone.

Limits

• Internationalised domains are shown in the punycode form the browser resolves them to.
• A URL with no protocol is read as https, which is a guess, though the right one in nearly every case.
• Only the standard percent encoding is handled. Older application-specific escapes are not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the two encode options?

One value escapes the URL separators so your text can sit inside a parameter. A whole address leaves /, ?, & and # intact so the URL still works, and only escapes spaces and other unsafe characters.

Why does my decoded text show a space where a plus was?

Because you used the form-encoded option, where a plus means a space. In the standard decoding a plus stays a plus. Which one is right depends on how the string was produced.

Does it handle non-English characters?

Yes. Characters are encoded as their UTF-8 bytes, so Hindi, Chinese or Arabic text becomes a run of percent escapes and decodes back exactly as it was.