URL Encoder

Percent-encode text for safe use in a URL or query string, live as you type.

Runs in your browser, nothing sent

url-encodeyour input stays here

Plain text / URL

Encoded

Type in either field — the other updates live, both directions. Uses encodeURIComponent, safe for query-string values. Runs entirely in your browser — safe for URLs carrying API keys, access tokens, or other secrets.

Need the opposite? URL Decoder

What is URL Encoder?

URL encoding, also called percent-encoding, converts characters that aren't safe to use directly inside a URL (spaces, &, ?, =, and any non-ASCII character) into a %XX format so the URL remains valid and unambiguous for browsers and servers to parse. Type plain text or a URL containing special characters and get the percent-encoded, URL-safe version instantly, both directions at once, so editing either field updates the other live. This is essential when building a query string value by hand, since an unencoded & or = inside a value would be misread as a separate parameter.

How to Use the URL Encoder

1
Type or Paste the Text: Enter plain text or a value you plan to use inside a URL, such as a search term.
2
Read the Encoded Result Instantly: The percent-encoded, URL-safe version appears automatically as you type.
3
Copy the Result: Use the copy button to copy the encoded value for use in a query string or API request.

How Percent-Encoding Works

Only a limited set of ASCII characters (letters, digits, and a handful of punctuation marks like - _ . ~) are safe to use unescaped inside a URL. Every other character (spaces, reserved symbols such as & ? = /, and any non-ASCII character) is replaced with a % followed by two hexadecimal digits representing that character's byte value. Non-ASCII characters are first converted to UTF-8 bytes, and each byte becomes its own %XX sequence, so a single accented or non-Latin character can turn into multiple percent-encoded triplets.

Example

OUTPUT

Encoding hello world & more=1 produces hello%20world%20%26%20more%3D1: the space becomes %20, & becomes %26, and = becomes %3D.

A multi-byte example: café encodes to caf%C3%A9, since é's UTF-8 representation is the two bytes C3 A9, each written as a separate %XX sequence.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about URL Encoder.

Standard <code>encodeURIComponent</code>, which is safe for encoding individual query string values (it also escapes characters like & and = that have special meaning in a full URL).

This is meant for encoding a value going into a query string (like a search term), not for encoding a complete URL including its protocol and domain, which shouldn't be percent-encoded.

encodeURIComponent (what this tool uses) escapes every character that's unsafe in a single URL component, including & = ? /, since those have special meaning in a query string. encodeURI leaves those structural characters alone because it's meant for encoding a full URL where they're expected to appear.

%20 is the standard percent-encoded space per the URL specification. A literal + is a legacy convention specific to the application/x-www-form-urlencoded format used in HTML form submissions, not general URL encoding, so this tool uses %20.

Yes, Bytelify's URL Encoder is free with no account or sign-up required.

No. The encoding runs entirely client-side in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.

These are defined as "unreserved" characters in the URL specification, meaning they're always safe to use literally in a URL, so encoding leaves them as-is instead of converting them to a %XX sequence.