When should I use URL encoding?

Use URL encoding when you need to include special characters (spaces, accented letters, symbols) in a URL or query string parameter. Without encoding, these characters can break the URL structure or be misinterpreted by web servers and browsers.

Which characters need to be URL encoded?

Characters that must be encoded include spaces, angle brackets ( ), curly braces ({ }), pipes (|), backslashes, carets (^), square brackets, backticks, and non-ASCII characters. Safe characters that do not need encoding include letters A-Z, digits 0-9, and the symbols - _ . ~

What is %20 in a URL?

%20 is the percent-encoded representation of a space character. In URLs a space cannot be used directly, so it is replaced with %20. You may also see a plus sign (+) used to represent spaces, which is common in HTML form submissions and query strings.

Is URL decoding the reverse of encoding?

Yes. URL decoding converts percent-encoded sequences back into their original characters. For example %20 becomes a space and %2F becomes a forward slash. This tool automatically detects whether your input is encoded and reverses the encoding back to plain text.

URL Encoder & Decoder — Encode and Decode URLs Online

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URL Encoder & Decoder

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Frequently Asked Questions

URL encoding (also called percent-encoding) converts characters that are not allowed in URLs into a format that can be safely transmitted. Special characters are replaced with a percent sign followed by their hexadecimal ASCII code, for example a space becomes %20.

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