What is an HTML Entity and Why Encode/Decode?

HTML entities are small codes used to represent characters that otherwise would be interpreted as HTML by the browser — for example the < or > signs. When you want to show code samples, special characters, or preserve raw markup inside articles and editors, you need to encode them. When receiving encoded strings from APIs, feeds, or copy-paste from web pages, you often want to decode them back to normal text.

Common Entities

• < = <
• > = >
• & = &
• " = "
• ' = '

How to use this tool

1. Paste or type text into the input box above.
2. Click Encode to convert special characters to HTML-safe entities.
3. Click Decode to convert entities back to normal characters.
4. Use Copy Result to copy the output; use Clear to reset.

Best Practices

Use encoding when publishing code examples or any text that should not be interpreted as HTML. Decode when you need to present the readable text to end-users or to process it in plain-text workflows.

Privacy

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