ToolPetal
Slug Generator
- Runs on your device
- Nothing uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
How slugs are built
The generator normalizes Unicode (NFKC), optionally strips accents to ASCII, lowercases when asked, replaces runs of non-letter or digit characters with your separator, then trims leading and trailing separators. A max-length cut happens after cleanup so you do not end on a dangling hyphen.
Unicode mode keeps letters such as Japanese or German characters when your server and CDN serve UTF-8 paths. ASCII mode is for hosts that still prefer pure a-z0-9 segments.
Worked example: separator, lowercase and ASCII options
Input ToolPetal: Free Browser-Only SEO Tools! with separator -, lowercase on, ASCII off becomes toolpetal-free-browser-only-seo-tools.
Input Cafe resume 2026 with ASCII on becomes cafe-resume-2026 after accent stripping. Without ASCII, accented letters can remain in the path when your stack supports them.
Limits
Slugs are for path segments, not full URL encoding (use the URL encoder for query values). This tool does not check whether a slug already exists on your site, and it does not translate words between languages.
Very long titles should be shortened by a human before you lock a public URL. Changing a published slug without a redirect breaks inbound links and social shares.
Worked example: shortening a long blog title
Title "10 Tips for Café Owners (2026 Edition)!" becomes 10-tips-for-cafe-owners-2026-edition: lowercase, accents folded to plain letters, punctuation dropped, spaces turned into single hyphens. You could shorten it to cafe-owner-tips so the URL does not go stale when the year changes.
Pitfalls
- Changing slugs after publishing. Old links break. If you must change one, add a 301 redirect from the old URL.
- Dates and numbers that age. A year in the slug forces a change later.
- Underscores. Google treats hyphens as word separators; prefer hyphens.
- Very long slugs. Shorter slugs are easier to read and share.
FAQ
Does this slug generator upload my title?
No. Conversion runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to ToolPetal.
What does ASCII mode do?
It strips combining marks after NFKD so accented Latin letters become ASCII, then keeps only a-z, 0-9, and your separator. Leave ASCII off when you want native letters in the path and your server supports them.
Can I use underscores instead of hyphens?
Yes. Set the separator to underscore (or another single character). Most SEO guides still prefer hyphens for word separation in URLs.
Will changing a slug break old links?
Yes if the live path changes. Generate the slug once, publish, and add redirects if you must rename later.
Should stop words like the and for be removed?
It is optional. Removing them shortens the URL, but keep them when the slug reads badly without them.
What about non-Latin titles?
Folding works for accented Latin letters. For scripts like Hindi or Japanese, either keep the native characters (they get percent-encoded in URLs) or write an English slug by hand.