Question 1

When do I need to URL encode text?

Accepted Answer

Encode your link whenever it contains spaces, accented characters, or reserved symbols such as & and = that could break a query string.

Browsers read the percent-encoded version correctly, which prevents broken redirects and tracking links.

Question 2

How do I decode a URL back to readable text?

Accepted Answer

Switch the toggle to Decode, paste the encoded link, and the original characters are restored instantly in the results panel.

Decoding is useful when you want to inspect the real parameters inside marketing URLs, API callbacks, or webhook payloads.

Question 3

What characters get changed during encoding?

Accepted Answer

Characters outside the safe URL set are replaced with percent-encoded values—for example a space becomes %20 and an ampersand becomes %26.

Reserved path and query characters remain untouched so full URLs stay structurally valid after encoding.

Question 4

How is this different from encodeURIComponent?

Accepted Answer

The tool uses encodeURI, which preserves separators like / and ? so you can encode an entire URL at once.

If you only need to encode individual query parameter values, run them through encodeURIComponent before inserting them into the URL.

Question 5

Why did I get an invalid URI error?

Accepted Answer

Decoding fails if the string is only partially encoded or contains stray % characters not followed by two hexadecimal digits.

Clean up the input or double-encode the percent signs (use %25) before decoding again.

Question 6

Is my URL data sent anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. Encoding and decoding run entirely in your browser, allowing you to work with private callback URLs or signed tokens securely.

Clear the fields after you finish working with sensitive links or credentials.

URL Encode Decode

Frequently Asked Questions