%C2%A0 is the URL-encoded non-breaking space.
In a URL, %C2%A0 stands for the non-breaking space (2 UTF-8 bytes). Here is when to encode it, what it does in each part of a URL, and what every major language outputs.
Quick facts
| Character | NBSP (invisible) |
|---|---|
| Name | Non-breaking space |
| Unicode | U+00A0 |
| UTF-8 bytes | C2 A0 (2 bytes) |
| Percent-encoded | %C2%A0 |
| Lowercase form | %c2%a0 — identical meaning |
| Double-encoded | %25C2%25A0 |
| HTML form encoding | %C2%A0 |
| RFC 3986 class | Not allowed in URLs |
| HTML entity | |
What it means in a URL
The non-breaking space (U+00A0) is two bytes in UTF-8, so it encodes as %C2%A0. It sneaks in when text is copied from Word, web pages or PDFs, and looks exactly like a normal space.
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 |
| Query value | Encode |
| Fragment | Encode |
| Form body | Encode |
The mistake to watch for
Search or lookup failures because a pasted value contains %C2%A0 instead of %20. Normalise to a normal space before encoding.
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) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| JavaScript encodeURI(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| JavaScript URLSearchParams | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Python urllib.parse.quote(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Python quote(s, safe="") | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Python urllib.parse.quote_plus(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| PHP rawurlencode($s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| PHP urlencode($s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Java URLEncoder.encode(s, UTF_8) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Go url.QueryEscape(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Go url.PathEscape(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Ruby URI.encode_www_form_component(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| Ruby ERB::Util.url_encode(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
| C# / .NET Uri.EscapeDataString(s) | %C2%A0 | encoded |
Decoding it
decodeURIComponent('%C2%A0') returns the non-breaking space. Python: urllib.parse.unquote('%C2%A0'); PHP: rawurldecode('%C2%A0'). Paste any string into the URL decoder to decode it in your browser.
← %00 Null byte · Full URL encoding table · %E2%80%99 Right single quotation mark (’) →
Common questions.
%C2%A0 is the percent-encoded form of the non-breaking space — UTF-8 bytes C2 A0, each written as % plus two hex digits. Decoding the URL turns it back into the character.
Yes. Hex digits in percent-encoding are case-insensitive, so %c2%a0 and %C2%A0 mean the same thing. RFC 3986 recommends uppercase, and mixing cases can make caches and analytics count one URL as two.
Use your language’s encoder on the value: encodeURIComponent in JavaScript gives %C2%A0, Python’s quote(s, safe="") gives %C2%A0, PHP’s rawurlencode gives %C2%A0.
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.