Free HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder Online
Encode or decode HTML entities and special characters.
HTML entities are codes like &, <
and © that represent characters which have special meaning
in HTML or can't be typed easily. The ToolVerse AI HTML Entity Encoder /
Decoder converts any text to HTML entities and back, helping you safely
display special characters in web pages.
It converts special characters (like <, >, &, and quotation marks) into their HTML entity equivalents, and can decode them back — essential for safely displaying text that contains characters HTML would otherwise interpret as code.
Who should use this tool: Web developers embedding user-generated content safely, technical writers documenting HTML or code snippets, and anyone troubleshooting why special characters are breaking a web page's layout.
Real-World Use Cases
- Displaying code snippets on a webpage: Encode angle brackets and ampersands in a code example so the browser displays the code as text instead of trying to render it as HTML.
- Preventing broken page layout: Encode special characters in user-submitted content before displaying it, so stray symbols don't break the page's HTML structure.
- Basic XSS prevention awareness: Understand and encode characters that could otherwise be used to inject unwanted HTML or script tags into a page.
- Working with legacy CMS content: Decode HTML entities found in old CMS exports back into readable plain text for editing.
Where This Helps
- Safely display code snippets in web pages without breaking HTML.
- Prepare user-generated content for safe HTML rendering.
- Debug encoded HTML from API responses or email templates.
Inside HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder
Most people run HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder without reading further. The part worth the extra ten seconds: Encodes &, <, >, ", /, ' to safe HTML entities.
- Encodes &, <, >, ", /, ' to safe HTML entities.
- Decodes all standard HTML entities back to characters.
- Uses the browser's own HTML parser for accurate decoding.
- One-click copy.
Walking Through It
- Choose Encode or Decode using the tabs.
- Paste your text or HTML into the input box.
- Click Encode or Decode.
- Copy the result.
Developer note
Common Mistakes
New users of HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder tend to hit the same wall: Double-encoding already-encoded text.
- Double-encoding already-encoded text. Running already-encoded text (like &) through the encoder again produces double-encoded output that displays incorrectly. Check whether your text is already encoded before processing it.
- Forgetting to encode text inserted dynamically into HTML. User-generated text inserted into a page without encoding special characters like < and > can break page layout or introduce security issues. Always encode untrusted text before display.
- Assuming decoding is always safe to skip. If you're pasting HTML entity-encoded text into a plain-text context (like an email), decoding it first prevents literal entity codes like & from appearing in the output.
Small Things That Help
- Encode before inserting into HTML, not after: Always encode special characters at the point you're inserting untrusted or special text into HTML, rather than trying to clean it up after the fact.
- Don't rely on this alone for security: HTML entity encoding helps prevent basic display and injection issues, but a production application should use a proper sanitization library alongside it.
- Check double-encoding issues: If text passes through multiple encoding steps, you can end up with doubly-encoded entities (like &) — verify your pipeline encodes only once.
Questions Worth Answering
Why encode HTML entities?
Characters like < and & have special meaning in HTML. If you include them in text content without encoding, the browser may interpret them as HTML tags, breaking your layout or creating security vulnerabilities.
Is this the same as URL encoding?
No. URL encoding (percent-encoding) uses % codes like %20 for spaces and is used in URLs. HTML entity encoding uses & codes and is used inside HTML documents.
What about non-ASCII characters like emoji?
The decoder handles all standard HTML named entities and numeric entities. The encoder handles the critical HTML special characters but doesn't encode Unicode characters, which modern HTML in UTF-8 can handle directly.
What characters get encoded?
Common characters like <, >, &, quotation marks, and apostrophes are the most frequently encoded, along with any other reserved HTML characters.
Does this protect against all types of code injection?
No, entity encoding addresses HTML-level display issues and some injection vectors, but a full security review needs proper input sanitization and output encoding tailored to the context (HTML, JavaScript, URL, etc.).
Can I decode entities back to normal text?
Yes, the tool supports decoding HTML entities back into their original characters.
Why does my ampersand show as & on a web page?
That's the correctly encoded form of a literal ampersand character, done specifically so the browser doesn't try to interpret it as the start of an entity code.
Why does my page show & instead of & sometimes?
That's a sign of double-encoding — an already-encoded & (which represents &) got encoded a second time. Make sure you're only running the encoder once on raw text, not on text that's already been through an encoder.