What are HTML entities?

HTML entities are escape sequences used to represent reserved or special characters in HTML. For example, < becomes < and & becomes &. They prevent browsers from interpreting text as HTML markup.

What is the difference between named and numeric entities?

Named entities use human-readable names like & or <. Numeric entities use code points — decimal (<) or hexadecimal (<). Numeric entities work for any Unicode character; named entities exist only for a defined subset.

🔤 HTML Entity Encoder

Encode special characters as HTML entities and decode entities back to plain text. Choose named, decimal, or hexadecimal entity format.

Named & Numeric Encode All Non-ASCII Instant Decode

Entity format:

Encode ALL non-ASCII characters

Input

Output

Common HTML Entities

&	&	&	Ampersand
<	<	<	Less-than
>	>	>	Greater-than
"	"	"	Double quote
'	'	'	Single quote / apostrophe
			Non-breaking space
©	©	©	Copyright ©
®	®	®	Registered ®
™	™	™	Trademark ™
€	€	€	Euro €
£	£	£	Pound £
¥	¥	¥	Yen ¥
—	—	—	Em dash —
–	–	–	En dash –
…	…	…	Ellipsis …

FAQ

When should I encode HTML entities?

You should encode entities whenever you insert user-supplied text into HTML to prevent XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks. At minimum, encode &, <, >, ", and '. In HTML attribute values, also encode the quote character wrapping the attribute.

What does "Encode ALL non-ASCII" do?

When checked, every character with a code point above 127 is also encoded — e.g., é becomes é. This is useful when working with legacy systems that only support ASCII, or when embedding content in environments that may misinterpret high-byte characters.

Which entity format should I use?

Named entities are most readable (&). Decimal numeric entities work universally (&). Hex numeric entities (&) are common in XML and some APIs. All are semantically equivalent in HTML5.

Can I decode multiple different entity types at once?

Yes — the decoder handles named, decimal, and hexadecimal entities simultaneously. Paste any mix of entity formats and click Decode to get the plain text representation.