URL Decoder Online — Decode Any Encoded URL String
encodeURIComponent · encodeURI · RFC 3986 — Query Params Table · URL Builder · Batch Mode — 100% browser-side
Paste text → get encoded URL
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Instantly decode any URL-encoded string back to human-readable text. Supports standard percent encoding, encodeURIComponent output, and encodeURI output. The URL Breakdown panel shows protocol, host, path, and query params separately after decoding.
What is URL Encoding?
URL encoding (percent encoding) converts special characters into a % followed by two hex digits. For example, a space becomes %20, & becomes %26, and / becomes %2F. This ensures URLs remain valid across all browsers, servers, and APIs regardless of the special characters they contain.
encodeURIComponent vs encodeURI vs RFC 3986
encodeURIComponent is the safest choice for encoding individual query parameter values — it encodes everything except A-Z a-z 0-9 - _ . ! ~ * ' ( ). encodeURI is designed for full URLs and preserves characters like : / ? # [ ] . RFC 3986 is the strictest standard — also encoding ! ' ( ) * — recommended for OAuth signatures and API authentication headers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I decode a URL in JavaScript?
Use decodeURIComponent() for decoded param values, or decodeURI() for full URLs. Example: decodeURIComponent("hello%20world") returns "hello world". See JS snippet in this tool.
How do I decode a URL in Python?
Use urllib.parse.unquote(text). Example: unquote("hello%20world") returns "hello world". See the Python code snippet in this tool.
What does %2F mean in a URL?
%2F is the URL encoding for a forward slash /. When / appears inside a query parameter value (not as a path separator), it gets encoded to %2F to avoid confusion with the URL path.
What does %3A mean in a URL?
%3A is the URL encoding for a colon :. It appears in encoded URLs when a colon in a value (like in https://) gets encoded. Decoding converts it back to :.
What does %40 mean in a URL?
%40 is the URL encoding for @ symbol. Email addresses in query parameters appear as user%40example.com. Decoding gives back user@example.com.