HTML Entity Decoder
Decode HTML entities back into readable characters. Free, instant.
How to use this tool
- Enter html-encoded text in the fields above.
- Results update instantly as you type — or click Calculate.
- Read your decoded text and the full breakdown beneath it.
HTML entity decoding converts HTML entities like &, <, and > back into their original characters.
How it works
HTML Entity Decoder takes a string containing HTML entity sequences and converts them back into their original readable characters. This is the reverse operation of HTML encoding: sequences like <, &, and ' are replaced with <, &, and ' respectively.
Paste encoded HTML text into the input field and the tool instantly returns the decoded, human-readable string. This is useful when you receive data from an API or database that has been HTML-escaped, when you are parsing HTML source to extract plain text, or when you need to read encoded content that is difficult to interpret visually.
The decoder handles both named entities (like and ©) and numeric entities in both decimal (©) and hexadecimal (©) forms.
Worked example
Read an API response that returned encoded HTML
- Receive a JSON field value: <strong>Hello & Welcome</strong>
- Paste that value into the HTML-encoded text field.
- Click Decode.
- Read the output: Hello & Welcome
The original HTML markup and special characters are restored and readable.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Expecting the tool to strip HTML tags: decoding entities and removing markup are two separate operations; decoded output may still contain raw HTML tags.
- Decoding content that was not entity-encoded in the first place: if the input is already plain text, the decoder may leave it unchanged or produce unexpected results for sequences that happen to look like entities.
- Confusing URL encoding (%20, %3C) with HTML entity encoding: this tool only handles HTML entities, not percent-encoded URL characters.
Key terms
- Named entity
- An HTML entity identified by a descriptive name, such as © for the copyright symbol or for a non-breaking space.
- Numeric entity
- An HTML entity identified by the character's Unicode code point, written as &#NNN; (decimal) or &#xHHH; (hexadecimal).
- Encoding round-trip
- The process of encoding then decoding data back to its original form. A correct decode should always produce the same string that was originally encoded.
Frequently asked questions
- What are HTML entities?
- HTML entities are text representations of reserved characters. For example & represents & and < represents <.