URL Encoder Decoder

The URL Encoder Decoder makes a value safe to travel inside a web address, and turns an encoded address back into readable text. Component mode escapes everything a single query value needs, while full URL mode keeps the characters a whole address needs. It is free, runs in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

How the URL Encoder Decoder works

The two modes exist because a value and an address are different jobs. Component mode prepares one value for a query string, so it escapes the characters that would break the value apart, the ampersand, the equals sign and the slash among them. Full URL mode prepares a whole address, so it keeps the characters an address needs to stay an address, such as :, /, ? and #.

1. Paste the value or the address into the box.
2. Pick component mode for a single value, or full URL mode for a whole address.
3. Choose encode or decode. For decode, decide whether a plus sign should count as a space.
4. Copy the result into your link, request or notes.

The classic failure is picking the wrong mode. Component-encode a whole address and the escaped slashes and colon break it beyond use. Full-URL-encode a query value and a raw ampersand inside the value splits it into two parameters, while a # quietly cuts off everything after it. One more thing worth knowing: if a value already holds %25, it has probably been encoded twice, because %25 is the encoded form of the % sign itself.

When the URL Encoder Decoder saves a broken link

Building links is the daily job. A search term, a name, a return address or a line of text with spaces in it has to ride inside a query string without breaking the parameters around it. Campaign links, share links and callback addresses all live or die on this one step.

Debugging is the second job. An API request fails, or returns the wrong thing, and the cause turns out to be a value carrying a raw ampersand or an unescaped space. Encoding the value properly, or decoding the request to read what was really sent, settles the argument in seconds.

Reading addresses is the quiet third job. Redirect chains, email links and log lines arrive percent-encoded, and decoding them shows where a link actually points before anyone clicks it. One raw ampersand in a value can quietly rewrite the whole request, and this page exists so you catch that character before your users do.

URL encoding rules and honest limits

The plus sign follows its own rule. In form data and query strings a + stands for a space, because that is how browsers send forms. In the path of an address a + is a real plus sign. The decode option on this page covers the form case. Leave it off when you are decoding a path, or real plus signs turn into spaces you never sent.

Malformed input gets an honest error. A bare % at the end of a value, or a % followed by characters that are not hex digits, cannot be decoded into anything real. When that happens you get an error message instead of a guessed result, and the fix is to look at the escape the error points to.

Encoding makes characters safe. It does not repair an address. A wrong domain, a missing parameter or a dead page stays wrong after encoding, just better dressed. Text headed for an HTML page rather than an address needs a different kind of encoding as well, and the HTML Encoder Decoder covers that side of the work.

Your text stays in your browser

The converting runs on your device. Values and addresses you paste are not sent to a server, not logged and not stored by ToolPeko. There is no account, no daily cap and no sign-up. Close the tab and your pasted addresses go with it.