HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder
Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode HTML entities back to readable text.
Supports named entities (&) and numeric entities (&).
What Are HTML Entities?
HTML entities are special sequences that represent characters in HTML. Characters like
<, >, &, and " have special meaning in HTML, so they must be encoded as
entities (<, >, &, ") when you want to display them as
literal text. This tool handles the conversion automatically in both directions.
Named vs. Numeric Entities
Named entities use descriptive names — for example, © displays the copyright
symbol (©) and € shows the euro sign (€). Numeric entities use the
character’s Unicode code point: © also produces ©. This encoder uses the
standard HTML5 named entities for common characters and falls back to numeric encoding
for less common ones.
Why Encode HTML Entities?
Encoding HTML entities is essential for web security and correct rendering. When displaying
user-generated content, encoding prevents cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by ensuring
that HTML tags in user input are shown as text rather than executed as code. It also
ensures that special characters like ampersands in URLs and angle brackets in code
snippets render correctly in all browsers.
What Are HTML Entities?
HTML entities are special character codes that represent reserved characters in HTML. Characters like < (<), > (>), & (&), and ” (") must be encoded to display correctly in web pages. This tool converts between regular text and HTML entity format instantly.
Why Encode HTML Entities?
Encoding HTML entities is essential for web security (preventing XSS attacks), displaying code snippets on web pages, handling special characters in form data, and ensuring content renders correctly across all browsers. Our encoder handles both named entities (&) and numeric entities (&).
All encoding and decoding happens in your browser — safe for processing sensitive content without data exposure.