Developer Tools

How to Encode and Decode URLs Online for Free

Published: June 8, 2026•6 min read

URLs can only contain a limited set of characters. Letters, numbers, and a handful of symbols are safe. Everything else, including spaces, ampersands, and non-ASCII characters, needs to be encoded before it can be used in a URL. This is called URL encoding or percent-encoding.

If you have ever seen a URL with sequences like %20 or %2F, those are encoded characters. A space becomes %20, a forward slash becomes %2F.

Common Characters and Their Encoded Forms

Space%20

&%26

=%3D

+%2B

/%2F

?%3F

#%23

@%40

How to Encode a URL Online

Using the ToolzGo URL Encoder:

1
Go to toolzgo.com/tools/developer-tools/url-encoder
2
Paste the URL or text string you want to encode into the input box
3
Click Encode. The tool converts every unsafe character to its percent-encoded equivalent
4
Copy the result and use it in your API call, form, or link

Encode vs Decode

Encoding

Takes a raw string and converts special characters to percent sequences. Use this before including user input or special characters in a URL.

Decoding

Takes a percent-encoded string and converts it back to readable text. Use this when you receive an encoded URL and need to understand what it says.

When to Encode

Use Case	What to Encode
Query string parameters	Values containing =, &, spaces, or non-ASCII text
File paths in URLs	Spaces, parentheses, brackets in path segments
Search queries in APIs	Full search term including spaces and punctuation
Redirect URLs in OAuth	The entire callback URL as a single encoded parameter
Email addresses in links	@ becomes %40 inside the URL path

Partial vs Full URL Encoding

There is an important distinction between encoding a full URL and encoding part of a URL.

If you encode a full URL like https://example.com/search?q=hello world, the tool encodes everything including the colon and slashes, which breaks the URL structure. You only want to encode the query value: hello%20world.

If you are passing a full URL as a parameter (common in OAuth and redirect flows), then you do want to encode everything, slashes included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a space in a URL always encoded as %20?

In most cases, yes. Some older form submissions use + instead of %20 for spaces in query strings. %20 is the standard for modern URL encoding.

Is URL encoding the same as Base64?

No. URL encoding converts individual special characters to % sequences. Base64 encodes an entire string to a different alphabet. They serve different purposes.

Do I need to encode the full URL?

No. Only encode the parts that may contain special characters, such as query parameter values. The scheme, host, and path slashes should stay unencoded.

Other developer tools: Base64 encoder, JSON formatter, and URL encoder, all free.

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