Encoding & Crypto · Free Tool
HTML Encoder & Decoder
Convert special characters to HTML entities (&, <, >) or decode entities back to plain text.
About this tool
Encode special characters into HTML entities: & becomes &amp;, < becomes &lt;, quotes become &quot;, or decode a string full of entities back into plain readable text.
Encoding user-supplied text before rendering it in HTML is the fundamental defense against cross-site scripting (XSS), and it is also how you display code samples on a web page without the browser executing them.
Common uses
- Display an HTML or XML code snippet on a web page without it rendering
- Decode scraped content full of &#39; and &quot; entities
- Safely insert user-generated text into an HTML template
Frequently asked questions
Which characters must always be encoded in HTML?
At minimum & < and > everywhere, plus quotes (" and ') inside attribute values. These five cover the cases that break markup or enable script injection.
Does this handle numeric entities like —?
Yes. Decoding resolves both named entities (&mdash;) and numeric ones (&#8212;) to their actual characters.
Is my data uploaded to a server?
No. This tool runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript, so nothing you type is transmitted, logged, or stored anywhere. You can even use it offline once the page has loaded.