Encoder / Decoder

URL, Base64 and HTML entities encode/decode

Paste a string and pick a format — URL encoding, Base64, HTML entities, hex, Unicode, or ROT13. Not sure what encoding you're looking at? The auto-detect mode usually figures it out. Handy when a scraped value looks garbled, or when you're building a URL parameter without wanting to look up the percent-encoding table for the tenth time.

Input
Output
Result will appear here…

How to use

  1. 1Paste a string — Text, URL, base64 string, or HTML — whatever you need to encode or decode.
  2. 2Choose a format — Start with Auto-detect — the tool will identify the format automatically. If the result is inaccurate, select a format manually: URL encoding, Base64, HTML entities, hex, Unicode, ROT13.
  3. 3Choose direction — Encode — to convert a readable string to an encoded form. Decode — to decode already-encoded data.

Examples

URL parameter with special characters
search=css selector tester → search=css%20selector%20tester
Before inserting a parameter into a URL — check the encoded string and confirm special characters won't break the request.
Decode Base64 from an API response
SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ= → Hello World
The API returned a base64 string — decode it right here and see what's inside, without a terminal.
HTML entities in scraped text
&amp;lt;div&amp;gt; → <div>
Scraped text is full of HTML entities — decode in a second and read clean content.
Encode JSON in URL format (for a GET parameter)
{"key":"value"} → %7B%22key%22%3A%22value%22%7D
When you need to pass JSON in a GET parameter or data attribute — encode via URL encoding and get a ready string with %XX.
Unicode escapes in scraped text
\u0048\u0065\u006C\u006C\u006F → Hello
Decode Unicode escape sequences from a JavaScript response — paste the \uXXXX string and get readable text without a script.

When to use for web scraping

Encoding and decoding comes up in scraping at every step: URL request parameters contain encoded strings, API responses may contain base64 data, scraped HTML is full of HTML entities, response headers sometimes contain encoded values. Without this tool you'd need to write a throwaway script or search for an online converter each time. Here all formats are in one place — and auto-detect removes the need to guess the format.

FAQ

How do I decode a string without knowing the format?›
Paste the string and select Auto — the tool will detect the format automatically. If the result looks like garbage, try manually: Base64 — string of letters/digits, usually ends with =; URL encoding — contains %XX; HTML entities — contains &amp; or &#.
Auto-detect showed the wrong result — what should I do?›
Some strings fit multiple formats — Auto-detect picks the most likely one. If it guessed wrong, switch to the correct format manually and the result will recalculate immediately.
What's the difference between URL encoding and Base64?›
URL encoding (%XX) is used to transmit characters in URLs, replacing special characters with hex codes. Base64 converts binary data to an ASCII string. The first is for URLs, the second is for transmitting binary content over text protocols.
Why do &amp;amp; and &amp;lt; appear in scraped text?›
The server returns the HTML source, not the rendered text — special characters in it are replaced with HTML entities to avoid breaking the markup. Paste such text, select HTML mode and Decode — you'll get readable content.
How do I decode a JWT token?›
A JWT consists of three parts separated by dots (header.payload.signature). Take the second part (payload), select Base64 and Decode — you'll see the user data and token expiry. The first part (header) decodes the same way.

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