What is the difference between the two modes?

Component mode (encodeURIComponent) escapes everything including : / ? & #, which is what you want for a single query value. Full-URL mode (encodeURI) preserves those reserved characters so a complete URL stays usable.

Does it handle Unicode characters?

Yes. Non-ASCII characters are encoded as their UTF-8 percent-encoded byte sequences.

Is my input sent to a server?

No. Encoding uses the browser's built-in functions and runs entirely on your device — nothing is uploaded.

What does encodeURIComponent escape that encodeURI does not?

encodeURIComponent escapes the URL reserved characters : / ? & = # + and others, treating its input as a single value. encodeURI leaves those reserved separators intact so a full URL stays usable. Both escape spaces, accents and most punctuation.

How is a space encoded in a URL?

As %20. These functions never produce a + for a space — the + convention belongs to form (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) encoding, not standard URI encoding.

Which characters are never escaped?

Both functions leave the unreserved characters A–Z, a–z, 0–9 and - _ . ! ~ * ' ( ) unencoded, because they are always safe in a URL.

How do I encode a value to put in a query string?

Use component mode (encodeURIComponent) on each value, so characters like & and = inside the value get escaped and do not break the surrounding query string structure.

Why should I encode user input before putting it in a link?

Unencoded special characters can break the URL or be misread — an & in a value would start a new parameter, and a space would terminate the URL in some contexts. Percent-encoding keeps the value intact and unambiguous.

URL Encoder — Gera Tools

URL encoder

Percent-encoding (URL encoding) makes arbitrary text safe to place inside a URL by replacing reserved and non-ASCII characters with a % followed by two hexadecimal digits. A space becomes %20, an ampersand %26, and the accented é becomes %C3%A9. This encoder applies that transformation so you can build query strings, share links, or pass values to an API without them breaking the URL — all in your browser.

How it works

The tool uses the browser’s two built-in encoding functions:

Component mode — encodeURIComponent treats the input as a single value and escapes the URL reserved characters too (: / ? & = # + and more). Use it for one query value or path segment.
Full-URL mode — encodeURI escapes spaces and non-ASCII characters but leaves reserved separators intact, so a complete URL stays usable.

Both encode non-ASCII characters as their UTF-8 byte sequences, and both leave the unreserved set (A–Z a–z 0–9 - _ . ! ~ * ' ( )) untouched.

Example

The value John & Jane? encoded in component mode becomes John%20%26%20Jane%3F: the spaces are %20, the ampersand %26, and the question mark %3F. In full-URL mode the same text becomes John%20&%20Jane? — the & and ? survive because they are structural URL characters.

Character	Encoded
(space)	%20
&	%26
=	%3D
?	%3F
é	%C3%A9

Everything runs in your browser with built-in functions — nothing is uploaded. To reverse it, use the URL decoder.