URL Encoder & Decoder - Advanced Charset & Encoding Support
Encode or decode special characters, spaces, and Unicode text in URLs or plain text using powerful URL encoding and decoding tools.
UTF-8 is supported by default, along with more than 30 character encodings including UTF-16, UTF-32, ASCII, ISO-8859 variants, EUC encodings, and Shift_JIS.
Choose from four encoding modes: Standard, Form, URI, and Sitemap.
Sitemap Encode converts URLs into a format optimized for the <loc> tag in sitemap.xml files.
Reserved XML characters such as &, <, >, ', and " are automatically escaped, so the result can be pasted directly into sitemap entries.
Need to process additional text data? Try the Base64 Encoder & Decoder or the JSON Formatter for related tasks.
Common Situations That Cause URL Encoding Errors
Most URL encoding issues occur in three common scenarios.
First, the wrong encoding mode is selected.
Using Standard encoding for form submissions or applying regular encoding to sitemap.xml files can cause servers to interpret the data incorrectly.
Second, the selected character encoding does not match.
If the sender and receiver use different charsets, text corruption or data loss may occur.
Third, double encoding occurs.
Encoding an already encoded URL again changes % into %25, which can completely break links. Enabling the prevent double encoding option helps avoid this problem.
Differences Between Encoding Methods - Standard, Form, URI & Sitemap
Different URL encoding methods are designed for different use cases, so selecting the correct option matters.
- Standard Encode is the most widely used method and converts spaces into
%20. - Form Encode is intended for HTML form submissions and replaces spaces with
+. - URI Encode preserves the overall URL structure while encoding only the path and query sections, making it ideal for complete URLs.
-
Sitemap Encode is optimized specifically for sitemap.xml files.
Even after standard URL encoding, leaving&instead of&can still trigger XML parser errors.
This method automatically escapes reserved XML characters such as&→&and<→<, so the result can be pasted directly into the<loc>tag without additional editing.
Choosing the wrong encoding method may cause servers to misread parameters or break links entirely.
Support for Multiple Character Encodings - UTF-8, EUC, Shift_JIS & More
Every character encoding uses its own rules to convert text into bytes.
When different charsets are used, identical byte values may be interpreted as completely different characters, resulting in corrupted text.
Although UTF-8 is the modern web standard, many legacy systems and region-specific environments still rely on older character encodings.
Vivoldi supports more than 30 charsets including UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32, ASCII, ISO-8859 variants, EUC encodings, Shift_JIS, GB2312, and Big5.
Using the same character encoding on both the sending and receiving side is essential for reliable, lossless data transmission.
URL Encoding for API Integration & Query Parameters
When working with external APIs, requests can fail if query parameters contain spaces or special characters.
Applying URL encoding ensures that servers interpret parameters correctly.
For example, spaces become %20, & becomes %26, and = becomes %3D.
The same rules apply to links in emails, social media sharing URLs, and OAuth callback parameters.
If your domain contains non-ASCII characters, you can also try the Domain Punycode Converter.
Decode Percent-Encoded URLs & Troubleshoot Encoding Errors
If a link from an email is filled with values like %2F or %3A, or a browser URL looks difficult to read, paste it into the decode tab to instantly restore the original text.
In development environments, the same method is useful for analyzing server logs, parsing API responses, and checking redirect parameters.
You can also enable the trim whitespace option to remove unwanted spaces added during copy and paste.
If you need to sort cleaned text or IP lists line by line, try the Text & IP Sorter.
Frequently Asked Questions
URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a standard method for converting spaces, special characters, and non-ASCII text in URLs into combinations of % symbols and hexadecimal values.
Web addresses were originally designed to support ASCII characters only, so sending special characters or Unicode text without encoding may cause servers or browsers to interpret the URL incorrectly.
For example, a space becomes %20 and & becomes %26.
Encoding converts readable text into the %xx format used in URLs.
Decoding performs the reverse process by restoring %xx values back into human-readable text.
You can switch between encoding and decoding using the tabs at the top of the tool.
In most modern web environments, UTF-8 is the recommended choice. It is the standard character encoding used to support international languages and special characters across the web.
If you are working with a legacy system or a region-specific platform, choose the same character encoding used by that environment.
If the encodings do not match, text may appear corrupted or unreadable.
If you are unsure which option to select, UTF-8 is usually the safest default.
The <loc> tag in sitemap.xml must contain properly encoded URLs that follow W3C standards.
Selecting Sitemap Encode converts URLs into a format optimized for sitemap.xml.
Unlike regular Standard Encode, it also escapes reserved XML characters such as & correctly.
Simply copy the converted URL and paste it directly into the <loc> value.
Standard Encode converts spaces into %20. It is commonly used for REST API requests, manually generated URLs, and most general URL encoding tasks.
Form Encode converts spaces into + and is used when submitting HTML form data with the application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type.
Mixing these two methods can cause servers to interpret spaces incorrectly, so choose the encoding method that matches your data transmission format.
The most common reasons for different encoding results are differences in character encoding and encoding methods.
Even the same character can produce completely different byte values depending on whether UTF-8 or a legacy charset is used. For example, encoding the same text with UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 will generate different results.
To match another tool’s output, use the same character encoding and encoding method.
If you are unsure which settings to choose, using UTF-8 with Standard Encode is usually the safest and most compatible default option.