Encode the component, not always the whole URL
Spaces, accents, ampersands, and other reserved characters can change how a browser interprets a URL. Percent-encoding represents those characters safely—for example, a space becomes %20.
If you are preparing one query value, encode that value before adding it to the URL. Encoding an entire URL can also escape structural characters such as :, /, ?, and &, which is often not what an application expects.
Decoding and review
Decoding is useful when reading analytics links, redirect parameters, or copied API requests. Review the decoded result before opening it: encoded text can hide an unexpected destination or script-like content. This tool transforms text only and does not visit the URL.
URL encoding in practice
Use this page for a single value, such as a search term or callback parameter, and leave the URL’s separators intact. The result follows the browser’s standard percent-encoding behavior and is useful for checking what will be sent in a query string. It does not shorten links, follow redirects, or validate that a destination exists.