HTML Tool

HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

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

⬆ Encode to Entities

⬇ Decode from Entities

Use Named Entities Encode Non-ASCII Encode Quotes

Live Preview

Input Text

0 characters 0 lines

Encoded Output

0 characters 0 entities

Common HTML Entities — Click to Insert

What is an HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder?

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have reserved meanings in HTML, or characters that cannot easily be typed. For example, the less-than sign < must be written as < inside HTML, otherwise the browser interprets it as the start of a tag.

This tool lets you instantly encode raw text into safe HTML entity representation, or decode entity-encoded HTML back to its original readable form — with real-time live preview as you type.

How to Use This Tool

Choose Encode mode to convert special characters to HTML entities (e.g., <, &).
Choose Decode mode to convert HTML entities back to readable characters.
Enable Named Entities to use human-readable names like & instead of numeric codes like &.
Enable Encode Non-ASCII to also encode accented letters and symbols.
Click any entity in the reference table to insert it into the input field.
Use Swap to reverse input/output for quick back-and-forth testing.

Common Use Cases

Safely embedding user input into HTML pages to prevent XSS attacks.
Preparing content for CMS editors, blog posts, and email templates.
Debugging encoded HTML from APIs or databases.
Encoding special symbols like © ® ™ ← → in web copy.
Teaching and learning HTML entity syntax.

Frequently Asked Questions

What characters need to be encoded in HTML?

The five essential characters are < (less-than), > (greater-than), & (ampersand), " (double quote), and ' (single quote). These have special meaning in HTML and must be escaped to display correctly.

What is the difference between named and numeric entities?

Named entities use a descriptive name (e.g., © for ©), while numeric entities use the Unicode code point — either decimal (©) or hexadecimal (©). Named entities are more readable; numeric ones work for any Unicode character.

Does encoding prevent XSS attacks?

Properly HTML-encoding user-supplied input before inserting it into a page is one of the primary defenses against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). It ensures that characters like < and > cannot form executable script tags. Always combine encoding with proper Content Security Policy headers for full protection.

Why should I encode quotes?

Quotes matter when inserting values inside HTML attribute values (e.g., value="..."). If your text contains a double quote, it would break the attribute syntax unless encoded as ".

What does "Encode Non-ASCII" do?

When enabled, all characters outside the standard ASCII range (code points above 127) — such as accented letters (é, ü), currency symbols (€, ¥), and emoji — are converted to numeric HTML entities. This is useful when targeting environments that cannot reliably handle UTF-8 encoding.

Can this tool decode all types of HTML entities?

Yes. The decoder handles named entities (like  ), decimal numeric entities ( ), and hexadecimal numeric entities ( ). It uses the browser's built-in parser for full compatibility with the HTML specification.