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HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

Encode and decode HTML entities in your browser — named, decimal and hex references — with basic and full numeric escaping modes.

Paste text or markup

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Mode

Decoded text

Decoded text appears here.

Unknown named entities are passed through unchanged on decode; nothing is guessed.

Your file is never sent to a server. It is read and processed by your own browser, and the results are not stored.

How to use it

  1. Paste the text to encode or decode, or choose a file.
  2. Pick Decode, or Encode with basic or numeric escaping.
  3. Copy the result or download it as a .txt file.

Limits worth knowing

  • Named entities are resolved from a built-in table; unknown names are left unchanged on decode.
  • Extended encoding writes every non-ASCII character as a numeric reference, which is longer but ASCII-safe.
  • Naked & characters in the input are encoded as &, as HTML requires.
  • Text above 10 MB is refused to keep the tab responsive.

Why entities exist

HTML reserved a handful of characters — &, <, >, quotes — because they are syntax, not content. An ampersand in text means “the next thing is an entity reference”, and a bare one in XHTML means the document fails to parse. Entities are the escape hatch.

Decoding is for reading messy markup dumps; encoding is for writing safe content into an HTML page, an attribute or a script that injects HTML.

Numeric versus named

Named entities are readable; numeric references are universal. Every code point has a decimal and hex form, which is why extended encoding never needs a table. Both decode to the same characters.

Frequently asked questions

Does HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder upload my files to any server?

No. HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder runs in your browser, and the file is read there rather than sent to a server for processing. Our host still sees ordinary page-request metadata, which is described on the privacy page.

Is HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder free to use?

Yes, HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder is free, with no paid tier, no account, and no watermark added to your output. The limits are technical rather than commercial: file size, page count and supported formats are listed on this page.

What file formats and sizes are supported?

HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder supports .txt, .html, .htm, .xml files up to 10MB directly in your browser.

Which entities can it decode?

The full numeric set (decimal and hex) plus a table of the named entities used in real markup — amp, lt, gt, quot, apos, nbsp, copy and the common typographic ones. Unknown names are left untouched, not guessed.

What does “extended” encoding do?

In addition to & < > and quotes, every non-ASCII character is written as a numeric reference (&#233;). Use that when the target system is ASCII-only.

Why are unknown entities passed through?

Inventing a character for an unknown entity would silently corrupt the text. Passing it through preserves what was in the input so you can see and fix it.

Is my text uploaded?

No. Everything happens in this tab; there is no server component.