URL Encoder Online

URLs can only safely contain a limited set of ASCII characters. Spaces, special symbols, non-English characters, and certain punctuation must be percent-encoded before they can be used in a URL. This tool encodes any text string into a safe URL format.

How it works

The encoder runs your input through JavaScript's encodeURIComponent() function, which converts characters outside the safe URL character set into their %XX hexadecimal equivalents. Processing is entirely client-side.

How to use it

1. Paste your text or URL query parameter value into the input field
2. The encoded output appears instantly
3. Click copy and use the encoded string in your URL

Example

hello world & more → hello%20world%20%26%20more

What gets encoded

Characters that get encoded include: spaces (%20), & (%26), = (%3D), + (%2B), / (%2F), ? (%3F), # (%23), @ (%40), and non-ASCII characters like accented letters or emoji.

Characters left as-is: letters (A–Z, a–z), digits (0–9), and -, _, ., ~.

A few things worth knowing

• Encode parameter values, not full URLs: If you encode an entire URL, the ://, / separators, and ?&= characters will also get encoded and the URL will break. Encode only the values of query parameters
• encodeURIComponent vs encodeURI: encodeURI is for full URLs — it leaves structural characters intact. encodeURIComponent encodes everything including ?, &, /. This tool uses encodeURIComponent for encoding individual values

FAQ

Should I encode the whole URL or just the query string? Just the query string values. The domain, path, and URL structure characters (://, /, ?, &, =) should stay unencoded.

Why are spaces sometimes encoded as + instead of %20? + for spaces is used in HTML form data (application/x-www-form-urlencoded). %20 is the standard in URLs. When in doubt, use %20.

Related Tools

• URL Decoder
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