URL Decoder

Decode percent-encoded URLs back to human-readable format

What is it and how does it work?

A URL decoder reverses percent-encoding, turning a string full of % sequences back into readable text. When special characters travel inside a URL — spaces, accents, ampersands, slashes — they are encoded as a percent sign followed by hexadecimal bytes, so a space becomes %20 and "ñ" becomes %C3%B1. Decoding undoes that, so a cryptic address like ?q=fish%20%26%20chips%3F becomes the human-readable ?q=fish & chips?. It is the companion to a URL encoder: one prepares text to go into a URL, the other recovers what was put there.

In practice you reach for a decoder most often while debugging. A redirect URL from your server logs, a callback address nested inside another link, or a long query string copied from the browser bar are all easier to understand once decoded into plain text. This tool applies the same UTF-8-based decoding browsers use (per RFC 3986), correctly reassembling multi-byte characters like accents and emoji. It runs entirely in your browser, so URLs containing tokens or private parameters never leave your device.

Common use cases

• Reading server logs: decode an encoded redirect or callback URL to see the real destination and its parameters in plain text.
• Inspecting a query string: decode a long URL copied from the address bar to read exactly what each parameter was set to.
• Recovering text: decode a value that was percent-encoded for transport back into its original readable form.

Frequently asked questions

What does %20 decode to?

%20 is the percent-encoding for a space. You may also see + used for a space in form-encoded query strings; a thorough decoder handles both, turning the encoded form back into a normal space.

Why do I see %C3%B1 for a single character?

Non-ASCII characters are encoded as their UTF-8 bytes, and each byte is percent-encoded. "ñ" is two bytes in UTF-8, so it appears as %C3%B1. The decoder reassembles those bytes back into the single character, which is normal for accents and emoji.

My text did not fully decode — why?

Sometimes a value is encoded more than once (double-encoded), so one pass leaves stray % sequences. Decoding again resolves the remaining layer. Malformed sequences that are not valid percent-encoding are left as-is rather than guessed.

Is decoding the same as decrypting?

No. Percent-encoding is a reversible text transformation with no secrecy — anyone can decode it. It exists to carry special characters safely through a URL, not to protect data, so never treat an encoded URL as if it were hidden.

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