URL Encoding Explained: Why %20 Means Space

URLs can only contain a limited set of characters (ASCII). Characters like spaces, emojis, or foreign letters are not allowed. To send them in a URL, they must be encoded.

How It Works

Encoding replaces unsafe characters with a % followed by two hexadecimal digits. For example:

• Space becomes %20
• / becomes %2F
• @ becomes %40

When to Encode

You must encode query parameters. If you put a user's search query directly into a URL without encoding, it could break the link or cause security issues.

Use our URL Encoder/Decoder to handle this safely.