URL Decoder

Decode percent-encoded URL strings back into their original, human-readable form.

URL Decoder

Decode percent-encoded URLs back to readable text.

URL Encoded Text

Decoded Text

💡 About URL Decoding

URL decoding converts percent-encoded text back to readable format.

Input examples:

Hello%20World! → Hello World!
user%40example.com → user@example.com
price%3D%2410 → price=$10

Note: Invalid percent sequences (like %XX with non-hex characters) will cause errors.

What is URL Decoding?

URL decoding reverses percent-encoding by replacing each %XX sequence with the corresponding byte and then interpreting the resulting bytes as a UTF-8 string. It also handles the + character, converting it to a space in form-data contexts.

Decoding is necessary whenever you need to read the actual value that was transmitted in a URL — for example, when parsing query parameters in a server-side handler or inspecting a redirect target.

Common Use Cases

Query Parameter Parsing: Decode encoded query string values on the server to obtain the original user input before processing. Log Analysis: Decode percent-encoded paths and parameters in web server access logs to understand what users actually requested. Redirect Inspection: Decode the target URL embedded in a redirect response to verify it points to the expected destination. API Response Debugging: Decode encoded field values returned in API responses that were serialised from URL-safe representations.

Tips

Never decode a full URL before parsing it — decode only the individual components (path segments, query values) to avoid reinterpreting structural characters. A + in a path segment is a literal plus sign and should not be converted to a space; only decode + as a space in query string or form-data contexts. Malformed percent sequences (e.g., %GG or a lone %) are invalid; handle them gracefully by leaving them as-is or returning an error.