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Text Tools

URL Decoder

Decode percent-encoded URLs back to text.

How to Use URL Decoder

1

Paste the encoded string, or the whole URL, into the input box.

2

Click the "Process" button to convert the percent-encoded characters back into readable text.

3

If the result still contains percent signs, run it through again, because the original may have been encoded twice.

4

Copy the decoded text with one click, or download it as a .txt file so you can inspect the full string offline.

Features

100% free with no sign-up and no limit on the length of the string
Decodes percent-encoded characters and treats a plus sign as a space
Restores UTF-8 accented characters, symbols and emoji correctly
Displays the decoded result immediately for easy verification
Copy the decoded text in one click or download it as a .txt file
Processes everything in your browser, so links are never uploaded or logged

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, it is completely free and unlimited, with no account or watermark. There is no paid upgrade.
No. Decoding runs in your browser, so the string is never sent to our servers and is not saved or logged anywhere.
That usually means the original was encoded more than once, which happens when a value is escaped in an application and then escaped again by a URL library. Decoding a second time normally produces readable text.
Readability is not proof of safety. Decoding tells you the real destination and the parameters inside it, so use it alongside the domain and the certificate rather than instead of them.

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About URL Decoder

Encoded URLs are hard to read, which makes them hard to debug. When a link someone sent you looks like a wall of %20 and %3A, you cannot tell at a glance whether it points where you think it does or whether a parameter has been truncated mid-value. Decoding turns the escaped string back into plain text so you can read the destination, spot the real query parameters and check the address before you click it.

It also solves the mystery of mangled email subjects and pasted web addresses. Email headers encode non-ASCII characters, so a subject line containing an emoji or an accented name arrives as a run of equals signs, question marks and letters. Decoding that fragment reveals the original text. The same applies to text you copied out of a spreadsheet that had been through a URL field: the value looks like %C3%A9 instead of an accented character, and decoding it restores the character.

Whether a space comes back as a space or a plus sign depends on where the string came from, so the decoder handles both forms. If a string was encoded twice, decoding it once may still leave encoded characters, which is a real and confusing situation worth being aware of - decode a second time and see whether the result becomes readable.

When to Use This Tool

  • Reading a long encoded link to confirm where it actually points before clicking
  • Inspecting the parameters inside a tracking or redirect URL
  • Decoding an email subject line that arrived as encoded characters
  • Recovering text that was percent-encoded in a spreadsheet or database field
  • Debugging a redirect chain or a query string that is not behaving as expected