Why do spaces become %20?

Space is an unsafe character in a URL. The hexadecimal value for a space in ASCII is 20, so it gets encoded as %20.

Is URL encoding the same as HTML encoding?

No. HTML encoding replaces characters like with < and > for safe display on web pages. URL encoding ensures data is safely transmitted in web addresses.

URL Encoder/Decoder

Secure Encoding — Safely convert URLs, query parameters, or any text to prevent errors in transmission.

Input Text / Encoded URL

Converter Guide

What is URL Encoding?

URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism for safely transmitting data through URLs. It replaces unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits.

Safe Transmission

It prevents servers from confusing special characters in your data with the characters that make up the structure of the URL.

Universal Standard

Following the RFC 3986 standard, this tool ensures your data query parameters are readable by any web server in the world.