HTML Entity Converter
Encode and decode HTML entities online. Convert special characters to their HTML entity equivalents and back with a handy reference table.
What is HTML Entity Encoding?
HTML reserves five characters with special meaning:
<, >, &, ", and '. To display them as literal text rather than as markup, you escape them with HTML entities — either named (<, &) or numeric (<, <). Beyond escaping the reserved set, entities also let you write Unicode characters that aren't easy to type: accented letters, mathematical symbols, currency signs, arrows, and emoji. Modern UTF-8 web pages can embed those characters directly, but entity encoding is still essential when generating HTML from user input (XSS prevention), embedding HTML inside JSON or attributes, or producing email-safe markup. This converter handles encode and decode both ways with a reference table for the most-used named entities. Working with broader text manipulation? See the URL Encoder/Decoder for percent-encoding, or the Base64 Encoder/Decoder for binary data.Encode
Decode
Input Text
Encoded Output
Common HTML Entities
| Char | Entity | Code | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | & | & | Ampersand |
| < | < | < | Less than |
| > | > | > | Greater than |
| " | " | " | Double quote |
| ' | ' | ' | Single quote |
| © | © | © | Copyright |
| ® | ® | ® | Registered |
| ™ | ™ | ™ | Trademark |
| € | € | € | Euro |
| £ | £ | £ | Pound |
| — | — | — | Em dash |
| • | • | • | Bullet |
How to use this tool
- 1Pick encode or decodeEncode converts plain text into HTML entities. Decode converts entities back to their literal characters.
- 2Paste your textType or paste into the input pane. The output updates in real time as you type, so you can verify each entity match.
- 3Pick named or numeric (encode mode)Named entities are more readable; numeric entities work for any Unicode codepoint. Toggle between them based on what your downstream consumer expects.