Free URL Encoder & Decoder — Encode Special Characters for URLs

Special characters in URLs — spaces, ampersands, quotes, Unicode — need to be percent-encoded to be safe. The Tools.Town URL Encoder makes it instant.

Encode: Paste a URL component (or full URL) and get the percent-encoded version. Handles spaces (%20), & (%26), emoji, and multi-byte Unicode characters.

Decode: Paste a percent-encoded string and get the human-readable version. Useful for reading redirect logs, debug API calls, and decoding query parameters.

Two modes:

• Component — encodes everything including / and ? (for query param values)
• Full URL — preserves structural characters (for encoding a complete URL)

Runs fully in-browser. Nothing is sent to a server.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is URL encoding? URL encoding replaces unsafe characters with a % sign followed by two hex digits. For example, spaces become %20, and & becomes %26.

When do I need to URL-encode? When including user-supplied text in query parameters, form submissions, redirect URLs, or API calls where special characters would break the URL structure.

What is the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent? encodeURI encodes a full URL, preserving structural characters like /, ?, and &. encodeURIComponent encodes a component (e.g. a query param value), treating those characters as unsafe.

Try it now — Open Url Encoder — no signup required.