URL Encoder + Decoder
URLs can only contain a limited set of characters — anything else (spaces, accented letters, symbols, non-ASCII) has to be percent-encoded (%20 for space, %C3%A9 for é). MiniMax Converter encodes any string for safe URL use and decodes any URL-encoded string back to readable text. Supports both component encoding (for query parameter values) and full-URL encoding (preserves :/?).
Component vs full URL — when each
Component: use when you're encoding a single value to put inside a URL (a query parameter, a path segment). Encodes &, =, ?, / — characters that have meaning at the URL-structure level but are part of your value. Equivalent to JavaScript's encodeURIComponent(). Full URL: use when you're encoding a whole URL that should remain a valid URL. Preserves :/?. Equivalent to encodeURI().
How to use it
- Open Tools → Convert & Format → URL encoder.
- Paste your string (text → encode) or URL-encoded string (encoded → decode).
- Pick mode: Component (default for query values) or Full URL (preserves URL structure).
- For complex query strings: paste the whole URL into the Parse query tab and it shows each key=value pair decoded into a table.
Common confusions
Plus vs %20: in query strings, spaces are sometimes + (HTML form encoding) and sometimes %20 (URI encoding). The tool handles both. UTF-8 multi-byte chars: é encodes to %C3%A9 (two bytes in UTF-8). Some old systems expect Latin-1; specify the encoding if needed. Double-encoded values: a value encoded twice has % become %25. The tool's decoder is one-pass; click decode twice for double-encoded strings.
Questions and answers
What's the difference between URL encoding and Base64?
URL encoding only escapes characters that have special meaning in URLs (~5% size increase for typical ASCII text). Base64 encodes ANY bytes (33% size increase). Use URL encoding for text destined for URLs; Base64 for embedding binary data in URLs.
Why is my query string not decoding correctly?
Common cause: the string uses + for spaces (form encoding) but the decoder is set to strict URI mode. Toggle "Treat + as space" or use the Parse query feature.
Does this support Internationalised Domain Names (IDN)?
IDNs use Punycode (xn-- prefix), not percent encoding. Different tool — for percent encoding only, this works fine on the path/query portion of an IDN URL.
What about JavaScript's encodeURIComponent quirks?
encodeURIComponent doesn't escape ! ' ( ) *. RFC 3986 says it should. The tool follows RFC 3986 by default; toggle 'JavaScript compat' if you need byte-exact match with the JS function.
Related tools
Get MiniMax Converter
Cross-platform desktop app. Linux free for non-commercial use; Windows & macOS one-time €20 license. No subscription, no telemetry, no account.