HTML Encoder / Decoder

HTML entity encoding and decoding explained

HTML encoding converts characters that have a special meaning in markup into entity references so the browser displays them as literal text instead of interpreting them as code. This tool encodes plain text into safe HTML and decodes entities back into readable characters, in both directions, entirely in your browser.

The five reserved characters

&  ->  &
<  ->  &lt;
>  ->  &gt;
"  ->  &quot;
'  ->  &#39;

These are the characters HTML uses to delimit tags and attributes. If a user types 1 < 2 && 3 > 2 and you place it on a page without encoding, the browser will try to read < 2 as the start of a tag. Encoding turns it into harmless text.

Why this is a security control, not just formatting

The most common web vulnerability — cross-site scripting (XSS) — happens when untrusted input is written into a page without encoding. Imagine a comment field where someone submits <script>steal()</script>. Render it raw and every visitor runs that script. Encode it on output and the browser shows the literal text instead. Output encoding is the front-line defence, which is why frameworks like React auto-escape by default.

Named vs numeric entities

Every encodable character can be written three ways: a named entity (©), a decimal numeric reference (©), or a hexadecimal one (©) — all of which render as ©. Named entities are more readable but only exist for a fixed set of characters. Numeric references work for any Unicode code point, making them the universal fallback.

Encoding vs Unicode

If your document declares <meta charset="utf-8">, you do not need to escape accented letters, currency symbols, or emoji — you can type them directly and they will render correctly. Reserve entities for the five characters that affect parsing, plus the occasional non-breaking space ( ) or invisible character you want to make explicit in source.

When to encode vs decode

Encode when you are putting text into HTML: user content, code samples in a blog post, or values inside attributes. Decode when you have received HTML-encoded text — for instance scraped from a page or pulled from an API — and want the original plain string back. This tool handles both, so you can round-trip text safely either way.

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