HTML Entities Encode & Decode Online
Escape HTML special characters to entities or decode entities back to plain text instantly. Protect your site from XSS — all processing happens in your browser.
What Is HTML Entity Encoding?
HTML entity encoding is the process of replacing special HTML characters with
their corresponding entity codes. An HTML entity encoder converts characters like
< and > into < and > so
they display safely in a browser. An HTML decoder reverses this process, turning
entity codes back into readable characters. Our free HTML entities tool handles
both encoding and decoding entirely on your device — nothing is sent to a server.
Common HTML Entities Reference
& &
Ampersand
< <
Less than
> >
Greater than
" "
Double quote
' '
Single quote
/ /
Forward slash
When to Encode vs Decode
Encode
Use encoding when you need to display HTML tags as text on a web page, embed user-generated
content safely, or prevent XSS vulnerabilities. Encoding turns <script>
into <script> so it renders harmlessly as text.
Decode
Use decoding when you have HTML entity codes that you want to convert back to readable characters. This is useful when extracting data from HTML source, processing API responses that use entities, or cleaning up escaped content for display in plain-text contexts.
Why Developers Use HTML Entities
- XSS Prevention — Encoding user input before rendering it in HTML prevents malicious script injection attacks.
- Code Display — Show code snippets on tutorials and documentation without the browser interpreting the markup.
- User-Generated Content — Safely display comments, forum posts, and profile data containing HTML special characters.
- Template Rendering — Template engines automatically encode variables to prevent injection when generating HTML pages.
- Email & RSS Feeds — HTML entities ensure special characters render correctly across different email clients and feed readers.
How to Use This HTML Entities Tool
To encode text to HTML entities, paste your content into the input field and
click Encode to HTML Entities. The tool will replace all special HTML characters
with their entity equivalents. To decode, paste entity codes and click
Decode from Entities. The tool recognizes named entities like &
and numeric entities like <. Use the Clear button to reset
both fields or Copy to copy the output to your clipboard.