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HTML Encoder/Decoder

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

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📋 How to Use

  1. Choose Encode or Decode mode.
  2. For encoding: paste text containing HTML characters (<, >, &, etc.) in the input.
  3. For decoding: paste HTML with entity codes (&lt;, &amp;, etc.).
  4. Click Encode/Decode — entities are converted instantly.
  5. Copy the safe encoded text to use in your HTML document or application.

About This Tool

HTML Encoder & Decoder — Convert HTML Entities Safely

HTML uses special characters for its syntax — <, >, &, ", and ' have specific meanings in HTML markup. When these characters appear in text content, they must be encoded as HTML entities to display correctly and prevent security vulnerabilities. Our HTML Encoder & Decoder handles all HTML entities instantly.

What Are HTML Entities?

HTML entities are special codes that represent reserved characters or characters that are difficult to type:

| Character | Entity Name | Entity Number | |---|---|---| | < | &lt; | &#60; | | > | &gt; | &#62; | | & | &amp; | &#38; | | " | &quot; | &#34; | | ' | &apos; | &#39; | | © | &copy; | &#169; | | ® | &reg; | &#174; | | € | &euro; | &#8364; |

Why Encode HTML?

Security — Preventing XSS attacks: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is one of the most common web vulnerabilities. If user-submitted text is inserted into HTML without encoding, attackers can inject malicious <script> tags. Proper HTML encoding neutralizes this threat.

Correct display: Characters like < and & break HTML rendering if not encoded. Encoding ensures they display as their literal character rather than being interpreted as HTML.

Character encoding: Encoding non-ASCII characters as entities ensures they display correctly even in documents with incorrect charset declarations.

Encoding Options

  • Encode unsafe characters only: Encodes <, >, &, ", ' — the minimum required for safe HTML output.
  • Encode all non-ASCII: Encodes every character outside the ASCII range as a numeric entity (&#NNN;).
  • Named entities: Uses named entities where available (&lt; instead of &#60;).
  • Numeric entities: Uses decimal numeric entities (&#60;) for maximum compatibility.
  • Hex entities: Uses hexadecimal entities (&#x3C;) preferred in XML/XHTML.

Use Cases for Web Developers

  • CMS content: Safely displaying user-generated content in web pages.
  • Code documentation: Displaying code samples with HTML tags as visible text.
  • Email templates: Ensuring special characters render correctly in email clients.
  • API responses: Encoding HTML in JSON strings for safe web rendering.

Encode and decode HTML entities now — free, instant, secure.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

HTML entities are special code sequences that represent characters reserved in HTML (&lt; for <, &gt; for >, &amp; for &) or characters that are hard to type directly.
Encoding user input before inserting it into HTML prevents Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, where attackers inject malicious scripts through unencoded characters like < and >.
&lt; is a named entity for the < character. &#60; is the decimal numeric entity for the same character. &#x3C; is the hexadecimal form. All three display the same < symbol.
At minimum, encode <, >, &, ", and ' for safe HTML output. For maximum safety in complex contexts, encoding all non-ASCII characters as numeric entities ensures compatibility.
Context-appropriate HTML encoding is the primary defense against most XSS vulnerabilities. However, encoding strategy differs for HTML content, attributes, JavaScript, and CSS contexts.
Yes. Copy the HTML source containing entities (like &amp; or &lt;) and paste it into the decoder to see the original characters.

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