Developer Utilities · Free tool
HTML Encoder / Decoder
Encode HTML special characters to entities, or decode them back. Three encoding levels. Free, browser-only.
Updated May 2026
Decode handles named entities (&, <, etc.), numeric ('), and hex (') — covers what browsers and most CMS editors emit.
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What it does
Encode HTML special characters to entities (& → &, < → <, etc.) or decode them back. Three encoding levels: minimal (just the characters HTML actually treats specially), named + non-ASCII numeric, or paranoid (every non-alphanumeric).
Embed this tool on your siteShow snippetHide
Paste this snippet into any page. Loads on-demand (lazy), no tracking scripts, and sized to most dashboards. Replace the height to fit your layout.
<iframe src="https://freetoolarena.com/embed/html-encoder-decoder" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" title="HTML Encoder / Decoder" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px;max-width:720px;"></iframe>How to use it
- Pick Encode or Decode.
- Pick encoding level if encoding.
- Paste your text — output updates live.
- Copy the result.
Frequently asked questions
- When do I need encoding level 'all'?
- When inserting user content into HTML attribute values without escape mistakes, or into older email clients that don't reliably handle UTF-8. For modern web pages with proper UTF-8 + escaping, minimal is usually enough.
- What's the difference between named and numeric entities?
- Named (&copy;) is human-readable but not all characters have names. Numeric (&#169;) covers every Unicode codepoint. Decode handles both — use whichever encoding your destination prefers.
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