What is URL Encoding?
URLs can only be sent over the Internet using the US-ASCII character set. Since URLs often contain characters outside the ASCII set (like spaces, or symbols like `?`, `&`, `=` which have special meanings), the URL has to be converted into a valid ASCII format.
URL encoding (or Percent-encoding) does this by replacing unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits. For example, a space becomes `%20`. Modern web applications require you to encode query parameters to prevent routing errors and security vulnerabilities like XSS.
Frequently Asked Questions
encodeURI vs encodeURIComponent?
This tool uses JavaScript's `encodeURIComponent()` under the hood. It is the safest choice for query strings because it encodes all special characters including `+`, `?`, `/`, and `:`. If you used `encodeURI()`, it would leave those characters untouched, which is only suitable for encoding a full, complete URL path.
Is this tool secure?
Yes. 100% of the encoding and decoding happens directly in your browser using Client-Side JavaScript. Your URLs and token parameters are never sent to a backend server.