URL Decoder
URL decoder for the browser. Decode percent-encoded text back to characters. UTF-8 safe; tolerates form-style + for spaces and multi-pass double-encoded input.
Percent-encoded in, plain text out
Percent encoding replaces unsafe characters with %XX hex escapes. Decoding reverses that, restoring the original characters byte-for-byte (UTF-8 aware).
Hello%2C%20world%21
Hello, world!
What you'll use this for
URL decoding turns wire-format percent escapes back into human-readable text — essential for debugging requests, reading logs, and inspecting form payloads.
Reading query strings
Decode the value side of a query string.
Server-side debug
See what the client actually sent.
Log parsing
Decode percent-encoded URLs in logs.
Form data inspection
Decode application/x-www-form-urlencoded payloads.
How to URL-decode text
Paste your URL-encoded text
Drop the percent-encoded string into the left editor. Whole URLs, query strings, or just a single value all work.
Enable multi-pass (optional)
If the input looks doubly encoded (e.g. %2520 instead of %20), enable multi-pass to re-decode until it stabilises.
Click Decode
Or leave auto-decode on for live updates. Runs entirely in your browser — no upload.
Copy or download
Copy to clipboard or save as .txt. Round-trip through URL Encode to verify.
Frequently asked questions
Each special byte is encoded as %XX, where XX is its hex value. UTF-8 multi-byte characters become multiple %XX groups.
Toggleable. Form data uses +; URL paths use %20.
Yes.
Some inputs are doubly or triply encoded (e.g. %2520 = encoded %20). Multi-pass re-decodes until stable.
About URL decoding
Percent encoding (RFC 3986) is the URL-safe transport format for characters that can't appear literally in a URI — spaces, ?, &, /, non-ASCII bytes, and so on. Each forbidden byte is replaced with %XX where XX is its two-digit hex value. Decoding reverses that: this tool calls native decodeURIComponent on your input, optionally first converting + back to a literal space (the form-encoding convention).
How decoding works
- Scan the input for
%XXtriplets and replace each with the byte it represents. - Consecutive triplets that form a UTF-8 multi-byte sequence become a single Unicode character.
- With Decode + as space enabled, every literal
+is first replaced with a space, matchingapplication/x-www-form-urlencoded.
Double-encoding and why multi-pass helps
- Single-encoded —
%20decodes to a space. One pass is enough. - Double-encoded —
%2520first decodes to%20, then to a space. This happens when an already-encoded URL is fed through an encoder again (e.g. forwarded across proxies, embedded in another query string). - Multi-pass repeats decoding until the output stops changing or no
%XXsequences remain — useful for triple-encoded log data or chained redirects.
When to use which mode
- URL paths and components — leave + as space off;
+is a literal plus there. - Form bodies / query strings — turn + as space on; that's how browsers submit forms.
- Suspicious or layered input — turn on multi-pass to peel back nested encodings.