What does %20 mean in a URL?

%20 is the percent-encoded form of a space character. This decoder converts it — and every other %XX sequence — back to the original character.

Why are there '+' signs instead of spaces?

Form submissions encode spaces as +. Turn on the "'+' as space" option and the decoder treats + as a space; leave it off for strict RFC 3986 decoding, where + stays a literal plus.

Can it decode emoji and non-English text?

Yes. Multi-byte UTF-8 characters encoded as several %XX groups are reassembled into the correct Unicode character rather than being decoded byte by byte.

What is double-encoding?

When an already-encoded string is encoded again, % itself becomes %25 — so a space reads as %2520. Run the decoder twice to unwrap both layers.

URL Decoder

Decode percent-encoded URLs and query-string components back to readable text.

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RAW INPUT

'+' as space

DECODED

Output appears here as you type — decoded on your device.

Input is processed on your device. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere.

What is the URL Decoder?

A URL decoder converts percent-encoded sequences — a % followed by two hex digits, such as %20 for a space — back into the characters they represent, reversing the URL encoding applied for safe transport in a web address.

Percent-encoding, defined in RFC 3986, exists because a URL has a grammar: characters like ?, &, #, / and space carry structural meaning, so any of them appearing inside a value must be escaped. The escape is a % followed by the byte's two hex digits — a space becomes %20, an ampersand %26, and multi-byte UTF-8 characters expand into several percent groups (é is %C3%A9).

This decoder reverses that, turning an encoded URL or query-string value back into the text a human actually wrote. It reassembles multi-byte UTF-8 correctly, so emoji and non-Latin scripts come back intact rather than as mojibake.

It also offers a form-encoding toggle. HTML forms submitted as application/x-www-form-urlencoded encode spaces as +, while strict RFC 3986 treats + as a literal plus sign. Getting this wrong is a classic source of corrupted search queries, so the choice is explicit rather than guessed.

URL Decoder at a glance

Specification: RFC 3986 (percent-encoding)
Escape form: %XX — one per byte, UTF-8 aware
Common escapes: %20 space · %26 & · %3D = · %2F /
Form mode: Optional: treat + as a space

How to use the URL Decoder

1Paste the encoded URL or query-string value into the input panel.
2If the string came from a submitted HTML form, switch "'+' as space" to Yes.
3Read the decoded text on the right and copy it out.

When you would reach for it

Reading a redirect or callback URL that has another URL nested inside it.
Decoding an analytics or UTM query string to see the real campaign values.
Inspecting a suspicious link during phishing triage without visiting it.

URL Decoder — frequently asked questions

Last reviewed 25 July 2026 · questions or corrections: contact@decoder.tools