HTML Entities Encoder/Decoder
Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode them back. Handles &, <, >, quotes, and all named/numeric entities.
Reviewed May 25, 2026. Privacy model: tool input is processed in your browser and is not uploaded to BytePane servers.
Common HTML Entities
About HTML Entities Encoder/Decoder
HTML entities are special character sequences that represent reserved or special characters in HTML documents. Characters like <, >, &, and quotes have special meaning in HTML and must be encoded when used as content rather than markup. Proper HTML entity encoding is the primary defense against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks -- one of the most common web security vulnerabilities -- because it prevents user-supplied content from being interpreted as executable HTML or JavaScript code.
HTML Entity Reference Guide
HTML entities come in three formats: named entities (& for &), decimal numeric entities (& for &), and hexadecimal numeric entities (& for &). The five mandatory entities for HTML safety are: & (ampersand), < (less than), > (greater than), " (double quote), and ' (apostrophe/single quote). Named entities are more readable but numeric entities can represent any Unicode character.
Beyond security, HTML entities are used for typography and special symbols: for non-breaking spaces (prevents line breaks between words), — for em dashes, © for copyright symbols, ™ for trademarks, and currency symbols like €, £, and ¥. Mathematical symbols (×, ÷, ±, ½), arrows (←, →, ↑, ↓), and typographic quotes («, », “, ”) are all available as named entities. This tool supports both standard encoding (escaping the five dangerous characters) and full encoding (converting all non-ASCII characters to numeric entities).
Method Checkpoint
Reviewed May 25, 2026. Standard encode mode escapes the five characters that commonly break HTML text or attributes: ampersand, less-than, greater-than, double quote, and apostrophe. Encode All converts unsafe characters and non-ASCII characters to numeric entities. Decode mode uses the browser's HTML parser so named and numeric entities resolve the same way they would in rendered HTML.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are HTML entities?
HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have special meaning in HTML (like < and >) or characters not available on the keyboard. They start with & and end with ;
When should I encode HTML entities?
Always encode user-generated content displayed in HTML to prevent XSS attacks. Characters like <, >, &, and quotes must be encoded when used inside HTML tags or attributes.