URL Encoder

Want to convert your URL text into an encoded URL format? Use our URL Encoder to do it seamlessly and quickly.

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About URL Encoder

URL encoder is an online tool that quickly encodes the given URL text. Also, it is more generally used within the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) set and it includes Uniform Resource Name (URN) and Uniform Resource Locator (URL). In addition, it is used in the preparation of data of the "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" media type.

Even if you are a technical or non-technical person, the URL encoder is very simple to use. All you need to do is just type or paste the URL string in the input area and press the "Encode" button. As a result, the tool will automatically convert the text string into its URL encoded format and display on your screen.

URL Encoder

What is URL?

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a unique resource on the Web. A valid URL points to a unique resource. This resource can be an HTML page, CSS document, image, javascript, etc. Both the URL and the resources it is representing are handled by the online web servers.

A URL consists of different parts. Some are compulsory and others are optional. They are discussed below.

  • Scheme: This is the first part that indicates the protocol that the browser must use in order to request the resource. The protocol is a method to exchange or transfer data around a computer network. In addition, websites generally use HTTPS or HTTP (the unsecured version of HTTPS) protocols.
  • Authority: It is separated from the scheme by the pattern "://". Authority includes the domain and the port that is separated by ":". Domain represents the web server being requested. The port indicates the technical gate used to access the resources on the web server.
  • Path to Resource: It is the path to the resource on the web server.
  • Parameters: These are a list of key/value pairs separated by "&" used by web servers to do some extra stuff before returning the resource requested.
  • Anchor: It represents a type of bookmark inside the resource, directing the browser to show the content stored at that spot.

What is URL Encoding?

URL encoding is a procedure for translating special characters into the universally accepted format by web servers and browsers. Generally, URLs contain ASCII alphanumeric characters and other safe characters like hyphen(-), underscore (_), dot(.), and tilde(~). These characters are not changed during the encoding process.

It's a way to encode reserved, unprintable, or non-ASCII characters in URLs into a safe and secure format that can be further transmitted over the Internet. Most importantly, URL encoding is commonly used in HTML form data submission in HTTP requests. Also, you can use our URL Encoder to do this encoding process quickly and accurately without any technical knowledge.

Encoding Process

It's a two-step process. The first step involves the conversion of the character to one or more bytes. In the second step, each such byte is represented by two hexadecimal digits starting from a percent sign (%).

The percent sign acts as an escape character. So, URL encoding is also known as percent-encoding.

Let's understand this with an example.

Example:

Encode the character: @.

Solution:

Follow the steps below:

  1. Firstly, check the hexadecimal value of "@" from the ASCII Table.
  2. We get 40.
  3. Lastly, precede the hexadecimal value with the percent sign (%).
  4. That's it.

So, the URL encoded value is %40.

Features of URL Encoder

  • Easy to use: The URL encoder is designed in a way so that users can use it effortlessly. Even more, the user interface is very simple and fewer buttons will make your job easier.
  • All in one tool: Our tool fulfills all your URL encoding requirements and you do not have to find any other tools.
  • No hidden charges: It's absolutely free to use and does not include any type of hidden charge.
  • Fast and accurate results: This online tool gives you accurate and instant results.
  • No prerequisites: This tool does not require you to log in, signup, or install anything to get access. Just enter the text and press the "Encode" button. The results will be ready within a second.

How to use URL Encoder?

  1. Firstly, Open the URL Encoder on any device with an active internet connection and browser support.
  2. Type or past the text string into the input area that you want to encode.
  3. If you want to replace the space with '+' after question mark (?), then check the checkbox. It will replace all the spaces after '?' with '+' sign.
  4. Lastly, press the "Encode" button.
  5. As a result, the encoded URL will be displayed immediately on your device's screen.
  6. Use the "Reset" button to clear input and output.
  7. Also, you can use the "Copy" button to copy the encoded URL text.
  8. If you wish to decode an encoded text into its corresponding URL text, click on "Swap" button. It will open the URL Decoder and you can easily decode any string.

Character Classification

The different types of characters that cannot be placed directly in URLs are as follows:

  • ASCII control characters: Characters in the range of 0-31 and 127 in the ASCII set are called control characters. They can neither be printed nor be placed directly in any URL without encoding them. Some examples of these characters include backspace, carriage return, line feed, vertical tab, horizontal tab, etc.
  • Reserved characters: These characters are ?, :, /, #, &, +, =, @, !, etc. These characters have special meaning within URLs. So, we can't place those characters directly in URLs without encoding.
  • Unsafe characters: Unsafe characters like ", <, >, %, {, }, |, \, ^, `, etc.
  • Non-ASCII characters: Any character that is outside the ASCII character set cannot be securely transmitted in URLs. So, we need to encode it first before placing it inside the URL.

The only class of characters that do not need encoding are safe characters. It includes alphabets, both uppercase(A-Z) and lowercase(a-z), digits(0-9), hyphen (-), underscore (_), tilde (~), and dot(.).

Some common ASCII characters and their corresponding URL encoded value is as below.

White space %20
: %3A
" %22
% %25
& %26
/ %2F
= %3D
@ %40
? %3F

Frequently Asked Questions

As per the URL specification RFC 1738, only a limited set of characters are allowed to be used in a URL, and the rest other characters must be encoded before including them in the URL. That's where the URL encoding is used.

All characters that are not allowed to be directly placed in the URL must be replaced by the percent sign (%) and a two-digit hexadecimal value. This value signifies the character in the appropriate ISO character set. For example, $ becomes %24 and + becomes %2B.

Characters acceptable in URI are either reserved or unreserved. Reserved characters are those that have a special meaning. For example, slash character. Unreserved characters do not have any special meaning.

Yes, we can. The percent character acts as the sign for URL encoded octets. So, it must be encoded as %25.

No, you can't use it offline. Because it's an online tool and you need an active internet connection to use it.