%20 is the URL-encoded space.
In a URL, %20 stands for the space. Here is when to encode it, what it does in each part of a URL, and what every major language outputs.
Quick facts
| Character | space (invisible) |
|---|---|
| Name | Space |
| Unicode | U+0020 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 20 (1 byte) |
| Percent-encoded | %20 |
| Lowercase form | %20 — identical meaning |
| Double-encoded | %2520 |
| HTML form encoding | + |
| RFC 3986 class | Not allowed in URLs |
What it means in a URL
A space can never appear raw in a URL — the HTTP request line uses spaces to separate the method, the path and the protocol version. Under RFC 3986 a space is %20 everywhere; under HTML form encoding (query strings built by forms and URLSearchParams) it is written as +.
RFC 3986 class: Not allowed in URLs. It is outside the characters RFC 3986 permits, so it must always be percent-encoded.
When to encode it
| Where it appears | What to do |
|---|---|
| Path segment | Encode as %20 |
| Query value | Encode as %20 or + |
| Fragment | Encode as %20 |
| Form body | Encode as + |
The mistake to watch for
Writing + for a space inside a path. Only query strings decode + as a space; in /my+file.pdf the server sees a literal plus sign.
What each language produces
Every function in this table encodes it. Output for the single character, UTF-8 input, tested against the real runtimes (see the encoding comparator for your own strings).
| Function | Output | |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript encodeURIComponent(s) | %20 | encoded |
| JavaScript encodeURI(s) | %20 | encoded |
| JavaScript URLSearchParams | + | + |
| Python urllib.parse.quote(s) | %20 | encoded |
| Python quote(s, safe="") | %20 | encoded |
| Python urllib.parse.quote_plus(s) | + | + |
| PHP rawurlencode($s) | %20 | encoded |
| PHP urlencode($s) | + | + |
| Java URLEncoder.encode(s, UTF_8) | + | + |
| Go url.QueryEscape(s) | + | + |
| Go url.PathEscape(s) | %20 | encoded |
| Ruby URI.encode_www_form_component(s) | + | + |
| Ruby ERB::Util.url_encode(s) | %20 | encoded |
| C# / .NET Uri.EscapeDataString(s) | %20 | encoded |
Decoding it
decodeURIComponent('%20') returns a space. Python: urllib.parse.unquote('%20'); PHP: rawurldecode('%20'). Paste any string into the URL decoder to decode it in your browser.
← %C3%A9 Latin small letter e with acute (é) · Full URL encoding table · %21 Exclamation mark →
Common questions.
%20 is the percent-encoded form of the space, whose byte value is 0x20. Decoding the URL turns it back into the character.
Yes. Hex digits in percent-encoding are case-insensitive, so %20 and %20 mean the same thing. RFC 3986 recommends uppercase, and mixing cases can make caches and analytics count one URL as two.
%20 works everywhere. + means a space only in query strings and form bodies (HTML form encoding); in a path, + is a literal plus sign.
More from the toolkit.
About this page. Written and maintained by Sri Murugan Systems, the developer of urlencodedecode.com. Character classes follow RFC 3986 §2; language outputs were generated by running each function in its real runtime.