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HTML Encoder / Decoder
Encode special characters to HTML entities and decode entities back to plain text – instantly, in both directions, with one-click copy.
✓ Free✓ No signup✓ Privacy first✓ Runs in your browser
HTML Encoder / Decoder – ToolPremier

Encode text to HTML entities and decode HTML entities to text · handles all special characters · client-side

How it works
Convert in three steps

1. Paste your text

Enter plain text with special characters to encode to HTML entities, or paste HTML with entities (&, <, ©) to decode back to plain text.

2. Choose direction

Select Encode (text to HTML entities) or Decode (HTML entities to text). The tool detects entities automatically and switches intelligently.

3. Copy the output

Get the encoded or decoded result in one click - ready to paste into HTML markup, a CMS content field, or a template.

FAQ
Common questions
HTML entities are text representations of characters that have special meaning in HTML markup or cannot be typed directly. For example, < must be written as < to prevent the browser from interpreting it as the start of a tag. & must be &. Characters outside the ASCII range - copyright, em dash, non-breaking space - also have named or numeric entity forms for reliable cross-browser display.
Named entities like &, ©, — are readable but only cover characters that have been assigned names in the HTML spec. Numeric entities cover any Unicode character: decimal (© for copyright) or hex (© for copyright). Both render identically – named entities are generally preferred for common characters because they are more readable in source code.
Always, before inserting it into HTML. If a user submits a script tag and it is inserted into a page without encoding, the browser executes it – this is an XSS (cross-site scripting) attack. Encoding user input so < becomes < prevents the browser from interpreting it as markup. Use this tool to verify encoding, but in production, HTML encoding should happen in your application layer, not manually.
Encode specific values: the content you are inserting into HTML attributes or element text content. Do not encode the surrounding HTML structure itself – only the dynamic or user-provided values that go inside it. Encoding everything would break the HTML markup.
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About the HTML Encoder / Decoder
HTML encoding is a fundamental web security operation – unencoded special characters in user-supplied content are a primary vector for cross-site scripting attacks, and incorrectly displayed characters break page rendering. Whether you are preparing text content for insertion into HTML, debugging a CMS that is double-encoding entities, or checking what a block of HTML markup actually contains after entity conversion, this tool handles both directions. Paste text to encode, paste HTML with entities to decode – the output is immediate and accurate, running entirely in your browser without sending content to a server.
Benefits
  • Bidirectional - encode special characters to HTML entities or decode entities back to plain text.
  • Covers named entities (&, <, ©) and numeric entities (©, ©).
  • Useful for XSS prevention review - verify that dynamic content is being encoded correctly.
  • Client-side processing - text content, including user-generated or sensitive input, never leaves your browser.
Privacy
All encoding and decoding runs client-side. Text content is never transmitted to any server.