OTHER to URL Online

How to Encode URLs Online

1. Paste Your Text or URL: Type or paste the string into the input box — a full URL, a query parameter value, a Base64 blob, or text with Unicode characters.
2. Pick the Encoding Mode: Choose URL Encode (Default) to apply RFC 3986 percent-encoding (spaces become %20), or URL Query Encode to apply application/x-www-form-urlencoded rules used by HTML forms (spaces become +).
3. Review the Output: The encoded result updates instantly as you type. Verify that any pre-encoded %XX sequences in your input weren't double-escaped — if they were, decode first with the URL Decoder.
4. Copy and Use: Click to copy the encoded string and paste it into your URL, fetch call, share link, or request body.

For other text transforms, see Base64 Encoder, HTML Entity Encoder, or the JSON Formatter.

What URL Encoding Actually Does

URL encoding (also called percent-encoding) is defined by RFC 3986. It replaces any character that isn't part of the "unreserved" set with a % followed by the character's UTF-8 byte value in two hexadecimal digits. A space becomes %20. An ampersand becomes %26. The euro sign € is three UTF-8 bytes (0xE2 0x82 0xAC) and encodes as %E2%82%AC. Encoding is necessary because the URL syntax itself reserves a handful of characters as delimiters — ? separates the path from the query, & separates parameters, # starts the fragment — so any payload character that collides with those delimiters must be escaped or it will be misparsed.

You'll reach for URL encoding in scenarios like these:

• Building API requests by hand — a search like price > $100 & color = red must become price%20%3E%20%24100%20%26%20color%20%3D%20red, otherwise the & will be read as a parameter separator and break the call.
• Embedding one URL inside another — social share buttons (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit) all take the target URL as a query parameter. If you don't encode the target's ? and &, the share endpoint mis-attributes them to itself.
• Passing Base64 or JWT tokens in a URL — Base64 uses +, /, and = which all have URL meaning. Either percent-encode them or switch to base64url (RFC 4648 §5), which substitutes - and _.
• Handling non-ASCII paths and queries — Japanese, Arabic, Cyrillic, and accented Latin characters (é, ñ, ü) must be UTF-8 encoded before percent-encoding for universal browser and server compatibility.
• Embedding file paths, SQL fragments, or regex in URLs — characters like +, =, /, \, ^, |, and {} either reserve URL meaning or are flagged as unsafe.
• OAuth redirect URIs and webhooks — query-string callback URLs are nested two or three levels deep and need encoding at every layer to survive the round trip.

RFC 3986 Reserved vs Unreserved Characters

These two character classes are the foundation of percent-encoding. Unreserved characters never need encoding; reserved characters only need encoding when they appear inside a component (not as a delimiter).

Class	Characters	Encoded?
Unreserved	A-Z a-z 0-9 - _ . ~	Never
Gen-delims	: / ? # [ ] @	Inside a component only
Sub-delims	! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =	Inside a component only
Other (unsafe / non-ASCII)	space, < > { } \ ^ ` " , control chars, Unicode	Always

Common Characters and Their Encoded Form

Character	Percent-encoded	Form-encoded	Notes
space	%20	+	Form mode (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) uses + for space
+	%2B	%2B	Always encode in queries — bare + is read as a space
&	%26	%26	Parameter separator
=	%3D	%3D	Key/value separator
?	%3F	%3F	Query starter
#	%23	%23	Fragment starter
/	%2F	%2F	Path separator
%	%25	%25	The escape character itself
é	%C3%A9	%C3%A9	Two UTF-8 bytes
€	%E2%82%AC	%E2%82%AC	Three UTF-8 bytes
🚀	%F0%9F%9A%80	%F0%9F%9A%80	Four UTF-8 bytes

JavaScript: encodeURI vs encodeURIComponent vs URLSearchParams

The three built-in encoders behave differently. Picking the wrong one is the most common source of double-encoded or broken URLs.

Function	Preserves (does NOT encode)	Encodes spaces as	Use it for
encodeURI	URI syntax: : / ? # & = + plus unreserved	%20	A complete URL when you want path/query structure preserved
encodeURIComponent	Only A-Z a-z 0-9 - _ . ! ~ * ' ( )	%20	A single path segment, query value, or fragment value
URLSearchParams / FormData	Same as RFC 3986 unreserved	+	Building application/x-www-form-urlencoded request bodies or query strings

In practice: use encodeURIComponent for every value you stitch into a URL, and use URLSearchParams when you're building a query string for fetch. Per MDN's encodeURIComponent reference, encodeURIComponent does not escape !, ~, *, ', (, ), which are sub-delims that RFC 3986 reserves — wrap it (encodeURIComponent(s).replace(/[!'()*]/g, c => '%' + c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16).toUpperCase())) if you need strict RFC 3986 conformance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is a space sometimes %20 and sometimes +?

Two different specs are at play. RFC 3986 percent-encoding (the one URLs use generally) encodes space as %20. The older application/x-www-form-urlencoded rule (used by HTML form GET submissions and URLSearchParams) encodes space as +. Both decode back to a space when parsed correctly, but they aren't interchangeable: if you send + to a server that expects strict RFC 3986, the + is interpreted as a literal plus. Use URL Encode (Default) for path segments and arbitrary URI components, and URL Query Encode when you're matching form behavior. As a rule, search engines and modern frameworks accept both inside the query string, but only %20 inside the path.

Do I need to encode + even when the user typed a real plus sign?

Yes — + is one of the RFC 3986 sub-delims. In a query string parsed as form-encoded, an unencoded + is read as a space. The classic bug is searching for "C++" and getting back results for "C " because the two pluses became two spaces. Always emit %2B when you mean a literal plus.

Does this tool handle emoji and CJK characters correctly?

Yes. The encoder operates on UTF-8 bytes, so a Japanese character like 日 (three UTF-8 bytes 0xE6 0x97 0xA5) encodes as %E6%97%A5, and a four-byte emoji like 🚀 encodes as %F0%9F%9A%80. UTF-8 is the encoding the W3C recommends and that all modern browsers use for URL inputs.

Should I encode an already-encoded string?

No — that produces double encoding, where %20 becomes %2520 (the % itself is re-encoded as %25). Before encoding, check whether the input already contains %XX sequences. If it does, decode it first (use URL Decoder) or treat it as already-encoded and pass it through untouched.

What about non-printing characters like newlines and tabs?

They encode by their byte value: newline (LF) is %0A, carriage return (CR) is %0D, a CRLF pair is %0D%0A, and a tab is %09. Most servers reject control characters in the path, but they're valid in POST bodies sent as x-www-form-urlencoded.

Is my data sent to your server?

No. The encoder runs entirely in your browser via JavaScript. That makes it safe to use on internal URLs, API keys, JWTs, or any other sensitive material. If you need to encode a token, also see Base64 Encoder and JWT Decoder.

Can I encode multi-line text or a whole list of URLs?

Yes. Paste a list with line breaks and the entire block is encoded as one string (newlines become %0A). If you need each line encoded independently, encode them one at a time, or split, encode, and rejoin in code.

Which characters never need encoding, ever?

The RFC 3986 unreserved set: ASCII letters A-Z and a-z, digits 0-9, and the four punctuation marks -, _, ., ~. Everything else either has reserved URL meaning or sits outside the safe ASCII range and must be percent-encoded somewhere in the URL.

Why does encoding https://example.com/ keep the slashes but encoding example.com/path may not?

It depends on which JavaScript function you used. encodeURI is designed to encode a full URL and preserves :, /, ?, #, and a few others so the URL structure survives. encodeURIComponent is designed for a single component (one parameter value) and aggressively escapes /, :, ? and so on into %2F, %3A, %3F. This tool's URL Encode (Default) mode follows the strict per-character RFC 3986 rules — pick whichever mode matches the role of the string you're encoding.