What is URL encoding and why is it needed?

URL encoding (Percent-encoding) is a mechanism for converting special characters into a URL-safe format. URLs can only contain certain characters from the ASCII character set. Other characters (such as Chinese, spaces, special symbols) need to be encoded as % followed by hexadecimal digits. For example, spaces are encoded as %20.

What's the difference between encodeURI and encodeURIComponent?

encodeURI is used to encode complete URLs and does not encode reserved characters (like ://?#[]@). encodeURIComponent is used to encode URL parameter values and encodes almost all special characters. This tool uses encodeURIComponent, which is more suitable for handling URL parameters.

What does Chinese text become after URL encoding?

Chinese characters are UTF-8 encoded first, then each byte is represented as %XX. A Chinese character is typically encoded as 3 %-sequences. For example, the UTF-8 encoding of "中" is E4 B8 AD, so its URL encoding is %E4%B8%AD.

What's the difference between URL encoding and Base64 encoding?

URL encoding uses % followed by hexadecimal digits for special characters, mainly for URL transmission. Base64 converts binary data into 64 ASCII characters, commonly used for data embedding. They serve different purposes. URL encoding is more compact but only works with text, while Base64 works with any binary data.

URL Encode / Decode

URL encoding and decoding

Input Text:

Output Result:

URL Encode/Decode Usage Guide

Main Features

URL Encode - Convert special characters to URL-safe format
URL Decode - Restore URL encoding to original text
Content Swap - Quickly swap input and output content

Use Cases

URL parameter passing and encoding
Parameter handling in API development
Encoding form data before submission
Safe transmission of special characters

Tips

Supports Chinese characters and special symbol encoding
One-click clear input and output areas
Quick swap for bidirectional conversion
All operations are local, protecting your privacy

URL Encoding Knowledge

encodeURIComponent() - Encode complete URL components
Reserved Characters - Letters, digits, -_.!~*'() are not encoded
Encoding Format - % followed by two hexadecimal digits
Chinese Encoding - Each Chinese character is converted to 3 %-encoded sequences