What Is HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder?
A free online HTML entity encoder and decoder. Convert special characters like <, >, &, " to their HTML entity equivalents (<, >, &, ") and back. Essential for preventing XSS attacks and debugging HTML output.
HTML entities are special character sequences that represent characters with special meaning in HTML markup. Characters like <, >, &, " and ' must be encoded as <, >, &, ", and ' respectively when they appear in HTML content — otherwise, the browser interprets them as markup rather than text. HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder handles both encoding and decoding of these entities in a bidirectional interface.
In Encode mode, the tool scans your input text for the five core HTML special characters and replaces each one with its corresponding entity. This is essential when you need to display code snippets on a web page, accept user-generated content safely, or prepare text for inclusion in HTML templates. Without encoding, a user submitting the text "<script>alert('xss')</script>" would cause the browser to execute the script as code rather than displaying it as text.
In Decode mode, the reverse operation converts entity-encoded text back to its human-readable form. This is useful when debugging HTML output, reading raw HTML source from web pages, or processing data from HTML-based APIs. The tool also handles (non-breaking space), which is commonly encountered in web content but is invisible in rendered HTML.
The syntax-highlighted output makes it easy to distinguish encoded characters from regular text. Encoded entities appear highlighted so you can verify that all special characters were properly converted. The swap button reverses the conversion direction instantly, supporting workflows where text goes through multiple encode-decode cycles during development and debugging.