Why encode URLs?
URLs only allow a limited set of characters. Spaces, ampersands, plus signs and non-English text must be percent-encoded (hello world → hello%20world) or web servers and browsers will misinterpret them — a & in a query value can silently truncate your parameters.
Encode vs decode
- Encode before putting arbitrary text into a URL parameter.
- Decode when you receive a percent-encoded string and want to read it. Component mode keeps / : ? & = untouched so full URLs stay readable.
Developers: pair this with the Base64 Encoder and JSON Formatter.