HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode entities back to plain text.

Processed in your browser. No data is sent to our servers.

How to Encode and Decode HTML Entities

Switch between Encode and Decode mode using the tabs above the input area. In Encode mode, paste plain text containing special characters like <, >, &, and " — the tool converts them to their HTML entity equivalents (&lt;, &gt;, &amp;, &quot;). In Decode mode, paste HTML-entity-encoded text and get the original characters back. This is essential when displaying user-generated content safely in web pages or when working with XML and HTML source that contains escaped characters you need to read.

Why HTML Entities Matter

HTML entities prevent the browser from interpreting special characters as markup. Without proper encoding, a < in user content could open an HTML tag, leading to broken layouts or cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. Encoding also handles characters outside the ASCII range, such as accented letters, currency symbols, and emoji. The tool supports both named entities (&amp;) and numeric entities (&#38;, &#x26;). All processing happens in your browser — no data is sent to any server.

Frequently Asked Questions

Named entities use a human-readable name like &amp; while numeric entities use the Unicode code point like &#38; or &#x26;. Both render identically in browsers.

Yes. Any character can be encoded as a numeric entity. Named entities are available for the most common symbols.

No. HTML entities are for displaying characters in HTML. URL encoding (percent-encoding) is for safely including characters in URLs. Use the URL Encoder tool for that.

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