# How to send urlencoded data using Axios

> Learn how to send urlencoded data with Axios using the qs module's stringify() method and the application/x-www-form-urlencoded content-type header.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2019-10-04 | Topics: [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/js/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/axios-urlencoded/

I had this problem: an API I had to call from a [Node.js](https://flaviocopes.com/nodejs/) app was only accepting data using the urlencoded format.

I had to figure out this problem: how to send urlencoded data using [Axios](https://flaviocopes.com/axios/)?

The first thing we need to do is to install the [`qs`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/qs) module. It's a cool querystring parsing and stringifying library with some added security:

```sh
npm install qs
```

Then we need to import the `qs` module along with the Axios import, of course:

```js
const qs = require('qs')
const axios = require('axios')
```

If you use ES Modules, use

```js
import qs from 'qs'
import axios from 'axios'
```

Next, the Axios code. Check my full [Axios tutorial](https://flaviocopes.com/axios/) if you are not familiar with it.

In short, we need to use the full form for the Axios request. Not `axios.post()` but `axios()`.

Inside there, we use the `stringify()` method provided by `qs` and we wrap the data into it. We then set the `content-type` header:

```js
axios({
  method: 'post',
  url: 'https://my-api.com',
  data: qs.stringify({
    item1: 'value1',
    item2: 'value2'
  }),
  headers: {
    'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8'
  }
})
```