About URL Encoder

This is a simple web application to encode and decode URLs. You need to type or paste a string in the input text area, the tool will automatically convert your string to URL-encoded format in real-time. Once the URL is encoded, you can click the copy button to copy the encoded URL. To clear the input text area and output text area click the clear button. Note that, our tool uses UTF-8 encoding scheme for encoding URLs.

Why is URL Encoding Needed?

URL encoding is necessary because URLs can only contain a limited set of characters. If a URL includes special characters that are not allowed or have reserved meanings, they must be encoded to ensure the URL is safe, valid, and properly interpreted by web browsers and servers.

1. 1. Certain characters have special meanings in URLs (e.g., :, /, ?, #, &, =, etc.). These are called reserved characters and must be encoded if they are used for purposes other than their special meaning.
2. 2. Some characters are unsafe to include in a URL because they can be misinterpreted or cause issues during transmission (e.g., spaces, <, >, ", etc.).
3. 3. Characters outside the ASCII set (e.g., accented letters, Chinese characters, etc.) must be encoded.

What is URL Encoding?

URL encoding (also known as percent-encoding) is a way to convert special characters in a URL into a format that can be safely transmitted over the internet. It ensures that reserved and unsafe characters do not interfere with the structure of a URL.

Encoding Process:

Each character to be encoded is replaced by a % followed by its two-digit hexadecimal value.

• A space character () is encoded as %20.
• The exclamation mark (!) is encoded as %21.
• The letter é (in UTF-8) is encoded as %C3%A9.

Common ASCII characters and their URL encoded value