diff --git a/plugins/sh/src/com/intellij/sh/ShExplainShellIntention.java b/plugins/sh/src/com/intellij/sh/ShExplainShellIntention.java
index 61d1d6aa1731..ce37a91b0f49 100644
--- a/plugins/sh/src/com/intellij/sh/ShExplainShellIntention.java
+++ b/plugins/sh/src/com/intellij/sh/ShExplainShellIntention.java
@@ -3,12 +3,14 @@ package com.intellij.sh;
 
 import com.intellij.codeInsight.intention.impl.BaseIntentionAction;
 import com.intellij.ide.BrowserUtil;
+import com.intellij.openapi.diagnostic.Logger;
 import com.intellij.openapi.editor.Caret;
 import com.intellij.openapi.editor.Editor;
 import com.intellij.openapi.editor.SelectionModel;
 import com.intellij.openapi.project.Project;
 import com.intellij.openapi.util.Pass;
 import com.intellij.openapi.util.text.StringUtil;
+import com.intellij.openapi.vfs.CharsetToolkit;
 import com.intellij.psi.PsiElement;
 import com.intellij.psi.PsiFile;
 import com.intellij.psi.impl.source.tree.LeafPsiElement;
@@ -25,12 +27,15 @@ import com.intellij.util.containers.ContainerUtil;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.NonNls;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
 
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Set;
 
 public class ShExplainShellIntention extends BaseIntentionAction {
+  private final static Logger LOG = Logger.getInstance(ShExplainShellIntention.class);
   @NonNls private static final String FEATURE_ACTION_ID = "ExplainShellUsed";
 
   @NotNull
@@ -107,6 +112,13 @@ public class ShExplainShellIntention extends BaseIntentionAction {
   }
 
   private static void explain(@NotNull String text) {
-    BrowserUtil.browse("https://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=" + text);
+    String encodedText = text;
+    try {
+      encodedText = URLEncoder.encode(text, CharsetToolkit.UTF8);
+    }
+    catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+      LOG.warn("Couldn't encode " + text + " for explainshell URL", e);
+    }
+    BrowserUtil.browse("https://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=" + encodedText);
   }
 }