# URL Decoder

> Decode percent-encoded URLs and query strings back into readable text.

URL: https://uttir.com/url-decoder
Categories: developer-tools, encoding-tools
Privacy: Decoding runs locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

## About

Percent-encoding hides readable characters behind %XX sequences. Paste an encoded URL or query string and get the original text back, including multi-byte UTF-8 characters like emoji and accented letters.

If the input contains a broken sequence — a % not followed by two hex digits — the tool explains the problem instead of producing garbled output.

## How to use

1. **Paste encoded text** — Any percent-encoded string or full URL.
2. **Read or copy the result** — The decoded text appears instantly.

## Examples

### Query string

Encoded symbols return to their readable form.

Input:

```
a%20b%26c%3Dd
```

Output:

```
a b&c=d
```

## FAQ

### Why does "+" stay a plus sign?

Percent-decoding does not treat "+" as a space; that convention belongs to form encoding. Replace "+" with "%20" first if you are decoding a form query string.

### What does %20 mean?

Percent-encoded space. URLs cannot contain literal spaces, so spaces are replaced with %20 (or + in form-encoded data). Other common ones: %2F = /, %3A = :, %26 = &.

### When is URL decoding used?

Almost everywhere URLs are stored or transmitted — server logs, database rows, browser address bars, and form submissions. Decoding is the reverse step: turning %20 back into a space.

### Is this the same as Base64 decoding?

No. URL decoding turns percent-encoded characters like %20 back into spaces. It only handles the percent-encoding scheme defined in RFC 3986, not Base64 or HTML entities.

## Related tools

- [URL Encoder](https://uttir.com/url-encoder) — Percent-encode text for safe use in URLs — as a query value or a full URL.
- [Base64 Decoder](https://uttir.com/base64-decoder) — Decode Base64 back into readable text, with clear errors for malformed input.

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For the full HTML page with the live tool, visit https://uttir.com/url-decoder.
This file is the markdown rendering at https://uttir.com/url-decoder.md. See https://uttir.com/llms.txt for a site-wide summary.