HTML Encoder / Decoder
Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode HTML entities back to plain text. Works instantly in your browser.
About HTML Encoder / Decoder
The HTML Encoder/Decoder converts special characters to their HTML entity equivalents and back. For example, the less-than symbol < becomes <, the ampersand & becomes &, and quotation marks become " or '. This is essential when you need to display HTML code on a web page or safely embed user content.
HTML encoding (also called HTML escaping) prevents browsers from interpreting special characters as HTML markup. This is critical for security — encoding user input before displaying it helps prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. It's also necessary when you want to show code examples or technical content that contains HTML tags.
Decoding does the reverse — it converts HTML entities back to their original characters. This is useful when you've received encoded content from a database, API, or form submission and need to display it as readable text. Both operations run entirely in your browser with no data sent to any server.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q What characters does HTML encoding convert?
HTML encoding converts characters that have special meaning in HTML: < becomes <, > becomes >, & becomes &, " becomes ", and ' becomes '. These five characters are the minimum that must be encoded to prevent HTML parsing issues. Some encoders also convert non-ASCII characters to numeric entities like © for the copyright symbol.
Q What is the difference between HTML encoding and URL encoding?
HTML encoding replaces special characters with HTML entities (like < and &) so they can be safely displayed in HTML content. URL encoding (percent-encoding) replaces characters with percent signs followed by hex codes (like %20 for space) so they can be safely transmitted in URLs. They serve different purposes and produce different output — use HTML encoding for web page content and URL encoding for query parameters.
Q Why is HTML encoding important for security?
HTML encoding is a key defense against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. If you display user-submitted content without encoding it, an attacker could inject malicious JavaScript that runs in other users' browsers. By encoding special characters like < and >, you ensure the browser treats them as text rather than executable HTML. Always encode user input before rendering it on a page.