URL Percent Decoder

About URL Percent Decoder

URL decoding reverses percent-encoding, turning sequences like `%20`, `%26`, and `%3F` back into their original characters — a space, an ampersand, a question mark. You'll run into encoded URLs constantly without necessarily meaning to look for them: copying a link from a browser's address bar after searching for something with spaces in it, inspecting a redirect or tracking parameter buried inside a longer URL, or debugging why an API request isn't matching the value you expected because it arrived still encoded.

This tool takes any percent-encoded text and decodes it back to plain, readable text in one step, using the same decoding logic browsers and servers use internally. It correctly handles UTF-8 multi-byte sequences, so encoded non-English characters and emoji decode back to the exact original symbol rather than garbled text — a percent-encoded accented letter or a percent-encoded emoji comes back looking exactly as it did before encoding, not as a mangled substitute character.

Not every percent-encoded-looking string is actually valid, though, and this matters in practice: a `%` sign that isn't followed by two valid hexadecimal digits (for example, a literal `%` used in ordinary text, like "50% off", followed by a space rather than a hex pair) isn't valid percent-encoding, and attempting to decode it as if it were will throw an error rather than silently producing wrong output. This tool catches that case and tells you clearly that the input contains an invalid escape sequence, rather than failing silently or showing corrupted text — which is exactly the kind of subtle bug that's easy to miss if a decoder just fails quietly.

Decoding runs instantly in your browser as you type or paste, with no length limit — useful whether you're decoding a short tracking parameter or an entire encoded URL with a long query string attached.

How it works

1. Paste the encoded text. Enter the percent-encoded text or URL you want to decode.
2. Read the decoded result. The plain-text version appears instantly below as you type.
3. Copy it. Copy the decoded text once it looks correct.