HTML Encoder & Decoder Online
Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode HTML entities back to plain text. Free online tool.
What are HTML Entities?
HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have special meaning in HTML. For example, < represents <, & represents &, and " represents ". Encoding prevents browsers from interpreting these characters as HTML tags.
When to use HTML encoding?
Use HTML encoding when displaying user-generated content on a web page to prevent XSS attacks, or when you need to show HTML code as text rather than rendered markup.
About This Tool
The HTML Encoder/Decoder converts special characters like <, >, &, and " to their HTML entity equivalents for safe embedding in HTML documents, and decodes HTML entities back to their original characters for reading or processing raw content.
Key Features
- Encode Special Characters — Converts <, >, &, ", and other reserved HTML characters to entities like <, >, &, and ".
- Decode HTML Entities — Converts HTML entities and numeric character references (<, <) back to the original characters for reading or further processing.
- Swap Direction — One-click Swap button reverses the operation for quick round-trip testing of encode-decode accuracy.
- Browser-Based Processing — All encoding and decoding runs locally in your browser. Your text never leaves your device.
- Free & No Signup — Use this tool as many times as you need without creating an account or paying anything.
Common Use Cases
- Encoding HTML code snippets for safe display inside a blog post or documentation page without the browser rendering them
- Preventing XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks by encoding user-submitted content before inserting it into an HTML page
- Decoding HTML-encoded content from scraping or API responses to read the actual text values
- Encoding attribute values containing quotes for use in dynamically generated HTML attributes
- Preparing code examples with HTML tags for use in XML-based formats like RSS or Atom feeds
How to Use
Select Encode or Decode mode using the toggle buttons at the top. Paste your content into the input field. Click the action button to process the text. The result appears in the output area. Use Swap to reverse the operation and Copy to copy the result.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I need to encode HTML characters?
Characters like <, >, and & have special meaning in HTML. If included literally in text content, browsers may interpret them as HTML tags or entities, breaking the layout or creating security vulnerabilities. Encoding converts them to safe representations.
What is the difference between < and <?
Both represent the less-than character <. < is a named entity which is more readable. < is a decimal numeric character reference. < is the hexadecimal form. All three are equivalent and browsers display them identically.
Does HTML encoding prevent XSS attacks?
HTML encoding alone prevents reflected XSS when inserting untrusted text into HTML content. However, different contexts (JavaScript code, URL attributes, CSS values) require different escaping strategies. Always use a context-aware escaping library for security-critical applications.
Do I need to encode spaces in HTML?
Spaces in HTML content do not need encoding. They only need encoding in URL query parameters (as %20 or +). In HTML attributes, spaces within quoted values are safe. Only in special contexts like XML attribute normalization do spaces become significant.
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