HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder - Convert Text to HTML Entities

Free online HTML entity encoder and decoder tool. Convert special characters to HTML entities for web development or decode HTML entities back to text.

Convert text to HTML entities for safe use in web pages, or decode HTML entities back to plain text. This free tool helps web developers handle special characters properly in HTML.

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How This Tool Works

Our HTML Entity Converter tool helps web developers safely handle special characters in HTML:

Encode to HTML Entities: Converts special characters like <, >, and & to their HTML entity equivalents (<, >, &) to prevent HTML parsing issues.
Decode from HTML Entities: Converts HTML entities back to their original characters for readability.

To use the tool:

Enter text in the input field.
Select whether to encode or decode.
Click the Encode/Decode button.
Copy the result with the copy button.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are HTML entities and why are they needed?

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have special meaning in HTML, such as <, >, &, ", and '. They're needed because these characters are used in HTML markup, and if you want to display them as text rather than have them interpreted as code, you need to use their entity equivalents. For example, to display the < character on a web page, you'd use the < entity.

When should I use HTML entities?

You should use HTML entities when:

Displaying code examples or syntax on a web page
Showing mathematical expressions that use < or > symbols
Outputting user-generated content that might contain HTML markup
Ensuring proper display of characters across different character encodings

What's the difference between named and numeric HTML entities?

HTML entities can be represented in two ways:

Numeric entities use either decimal (< for <) or hexadecimal (< for <) references.

Named entities are more readable, but numeric entities can represent any Unicode character and are more universally supported. Our tool converts to named entities when possible and uses numeric entities for other characters.

Tips and Best Practices

Use HTML entity encoding when displaying user input on a webpage to prevent XSS attacks
When showing code examples on your website, always encode the HTML characters to ensure they display properly
Remember that modern browsers automatically handle most encoding issues when you set the correct charset in your HTML
You can use HTML entities to insert special characters that aren't available on your keyboard
For better accessibility, use named entities when available as they're more human-readable in the source code
If you're working with XML, you need to encode at minimum these five characters: <, >, &, ", and '