Online HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder
Escape reserved HTML characters (like <, >, &) into safe entities. Prevent XSS attacks and ensure proper code rendering in browsers.
The First Line of Defense Against XSS: What are HTML Entities?
Web browsers are designed to interpret characters like `` (greater than), and `&` (ampersand) as control codes for HTML tags structure. If user-generated content containing these characters is injected into a webpage without processing, it creates a vulnerability known as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). Attackers can use this flaw to execute malicious JavaScript on your users' browsers. Our HTML Entity Encoder mitigates this risk by converting reserved characters into safe "Entities" (e.g., `
FAQ
In the context of HTML, they are often used interchangeably. Escaping specifically refers to converting characters that have special meaning (like `<` or `>`) so they are treated as text, while Encoding can refer to a broader range of character conversions.
If your document charset is set to UTF-8 (which is the modern standard), you do not need to encode emojis as entities. However, for legacy compatibility, our tool can convert them to their numeric decimal entities (e.g., `😀` for 😀).
Yes. All encoding and decoding operations are performed client-side using JavaScript. Your data is processed instantly in your browser and is never transmitted to our servers.
The ampersand `&` is the prefix for all HTML entities. To display an actual ampersand on a webpage without triggering an entity sequence, it must be escaped as `&`. This is one of the most common syntax errors in HTML.
No, this is not an HTML Validator or Fixer. It converts characters to safe text equivalents. It will not close missing tags or fix nesting errors; it simply ensures the text you input is safe to display.