URL Decode
Paste a percent-encoded URL, query string or form value (for example caf%C3%A9%20au%20lait) to turn it back into readable text.
Tip: press Ctrl + Enter (⌘ + Enter on Mac) to decode.
What is URL decoding?
Links cannot contain spaces, accented letters or symbols like & and ?, so these characters are replaced by codes that start with %. For example, a space becomes %20 and é becomes %C3%A9. URL decoding turns these codes back into normal text.
How to use it
- Paste the encoded link or text into the box above.
- Press DECODE – the readable text appears below.
- If you see
�instead of letters, choose Auto-detect in the character set list.
Examples
| Encoded | Decoded |
|---|---|
hello%20world | hello world |
caf%C3%A9%20cr%C3%A8me | café crème |
https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F%3Fq%3Da%26b%3Dc | https://example.com/?q=a&b=c |
%2520 (recursive) | a single space |
Frequently asked questions
What does %20 mean?
It is a space. Every % followed by two characters stands for one encoded character – for example %2F is /, %3F is ? and %26 is &.
Why is + not turned into a space?
In a normal link, + is just a plus sign. Only data sent from web forms uses + for spaces (for example q=hello+world). In that case, tick Treat + as a space.
The result still contains codes like %20 or %25. Why?
The text was encoded more than once (%25 is the code for % itself). Tick Decode recursively, or click Use as input and decode again.
Why do I see � instead of letters?
The text was encoded with a character set other than UTF-8, which is common on older websites. Choose Auto-detect or pick the right character set from the list.
What happens to an invalid sequence like %zz?
It is kept unchanged, and a note tells you how many such sequences were found.