HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

What are HTML Entities?

HTML entities are special codes that represent characters which would otherwise be interpreted as markup or cannot be typed directly. For instance, the less-than sign < is written as &lt; so the browser treats it as a literal character rather than the start of a tag. The most important entities are &amp; (&), &lt; (<), &gt; (>), &quot; ("), and &#39; (').

Our HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder converts these special characters into entities so your text displays correctly inside HTML, and decodes entities back into the original characters. An optional mode also encodes every non-ASCII character as a numeric entity for maximum compatibility.

How to Use the Tool

• Choose Encode to escape special characters, or Decode to reverse the process
• In encode mode, optionally turn on "encode all non-ASCII characters"
• Type or paste your input to see the converted result instantly
• Use Swap to move the output into the input and flip the mode
• Click Copy to copy the result to your clipboard

Why Encoding HTML Matters for Security

Encoding user-supplied text before inserting it into a web page is one of the most important defenses against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. If raw input containing a <script> tag is placed directly into HTML, the browser will execute it. Encoding the angle brackets to entities neutralizes the threat by rendering the text harmlessly.

Beyond security, encoding prevents content from accidentally breaking your layout — for example, displaying code samples, mathematical comparisons, or text that contains ampersands and quotes without the browser misinterpreting them as markup.

Privacy

All encoding and decoding happens in your browser, so your content is never transmitted anywhere and remains completely private.