Decode percent-encoded URLs back into readable text.
Turn %20 and friends back into readable text. Handles multiple layers of encoding and tells you when a URL has been double-encoded.
Everything you enter stays in this browser tab. Nothing is sent to our servers, logged or stored.
This is one of the thingsEncoding Tooldoes — open it for everything else it supports.
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What Encoding Tool supports
Base64
Base64 encode
Base64 decode
URL
URL encode
URL decode
HTML
HTML entity encode
HTML entity decode
About URL Decoder
Encoded URLs are unreadable by design. A tracking link full of %3A, %2F and %3D contains perfectly ordinary text underneath, and decoding it is often the quickest way to understand where a redirect actually goes.
Double encoding is handled explicitly. When a URL passes through several systems that each escape it, the percent signs themselves get escaped as %25 — the tool detects that and offers to decode again until the result stops changing.
How to decode a URL
1
Paste the encoded URL
Any percent-encoded URL, query string or fragment.
2
Read the result
Decoding happens immediately.
3
Decode again if needed
If the result still contains escapes, it was double-encoded.
Frequently asked questions
What does %20 mean?
It is a percent-encoded space. The percent sign introduces an escape and 20 is the hexadecimal value of the space character. Any byte can be written this way — %2F is a slash, %3A a colon.
Why does my URL still contain % sequences after decoding?
It was encoded twice, so the percent signs themselves were escaped as %25. Decode again — the tool detects this and offers repeat decoding until the output stabilises.
Why do I see strange characters after decoding?
The bytes are interpreted as UTF-8, which is the modern standard. Text encoded with an older character set can decode to unexpected characters, and it can also mean the input was not percent-encoded text to begin with.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Decoding is entirely local, so URLs containing session tokens or personal data stay on your device.