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HTML Escape & Unescape

Safely encode special HTML characters (&, <, >, ", ') into HTML entities.

100% Client-Side Local Execution
Input Data
1
Transformed Result
1

What is HTML Escape & Unescape?

This html encode tool escapes special characters like <, >, &, and quotes into their HTML entity equivalents, which is essential for safely displaying user-generated text inside a web page without it being interpreted as markup. It also unescapes HTML entities back to readable text. A reliable way to escape html characters and sanitize html output for XSS-safe rendering.

Technical Execution

Encoding replaces reserved HTML characters with their named or numeric entity codes (for example < becomes &lt; and & becomes &amp;), preventing a browser from interpreting that text as markup or script. Decoding reverses the process, converting entities back to their literal characters for display or further processing.

Zero Data Storage Guarantee

Text you're escaping often includes user comments, form input, or content meant for public display, which can carry personal information. This tool processes everything locally in your browser, so the text never passes through an external server.

How to Use HTML Escape & Unescape (Step-by-Step Guide)

  1. Paste the text or HTML snippet you want to escape or unescape
  2. Choose encode or decode mode
  3. The tool converts special characters to or from HTML entities
  4. Review the escaped or restored output
  5. Copy the result for use in your HTML, template, or code

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What's the difference between html encode and html escape?
A: They're the same operation — converting reserved characters like < and & into their HTML entity equivalents — just described with different common terms.
Q: Why do I need to sanitize html before displaying user input?
A: Without escaping, characters like < and > in user-submitted text could be interpreted as actual HTML tags or scripts, creating an XSS security risk.
Q: Is this html entity encoder free?
A: Yes, free to use with no account or limits.
Q: What characters does html escape online actually convert?
A: The core set includes < > & " and ', converted to &lt; &gt; &amp; &quot; and &#39; respectively, the characters with special meaning in HTML.
Q: Can I use html unescape to reverse entities back to normal text?
A: Yes, switching to decode mode converts entities like &amp; and &lt; back into their literal & and < characters.
Q: Does escaping HTML prevent all XSS attacks by itself?
A: It prevents the specific case of injected markup being rendered as HTML, but full XSS protection also depends on context-appropriate escaping and server-side validation.
Q: Will it escape emoji or non-English characters?
A: Those characters generally don't need escaping for HTML safety and are left as-is unless you explicitly choose a mode that converts all characters to numeric entities.
Q: Can I escape an entire HTML document, not just a snippet?
A: Yes, though escaping a full document converts all its tags to literal text, which is typically only useful when you want to display the HTML source itself, not render it.
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