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HTML Entity Decoder

Turn HTML entities back into the characters they represent.

Quick Tool Overview

The HTML Entity Decoder resolves named, decimal and hexadecimal entities back into characters using the browser's own entity table, which covers all 2,231 named entities in the HTML5 specification rather than a hand-written subset.

What it does
Decodes HTML entities into plain characters
You give it
Text from page source, a feed or a CMS export
You get back
The plain text those entities represent
Best for
Cleaning scraped content and database exports
Text Tools Free, unlimited use No sign-up Runs in your browser

About the HTML Entity Decoder

Text pulled out of an HTML source, an RSS feed, a CMS export or a database that stored escaped markup arrives full of & and ' and  . Reading it is annoying; using it anywhere else is worse, because the entities are literal characters.

This decodes all three forms — named entities such as ©, decimal ones such as © and hexadecimal ones such as © — back into the characters they represent, using the browser's own entity table so every one of the 2,000-plus named entities is covered. Double-encoded text, where an ampersand was itself escaped, is detected and can be decoded twice in one go.

Key features of the HTML Entity Decoder

Complete entity coverage

The browser's own parser resolves every named entity, not a partial lookup table.

All three forms

Named, decimal and hexadecimal entities all decode from the same input.

Double encoding detected

& is recognised as text escaped twice, and a second pass is offered.

Safe with untrusted input

Decoding happens in an inert document that never executes scripts or loads resources.

Warns about  

It decodes to a non-breaking space, which looks like a space and is not — the tool says so.

How to use the HTML Entity Decoder

  1. 1

    Paste the escaped text

    From page source, an RSS feed, a CMS export or a database column.

  2. 2

    Read the decoded result

    Named, decimal and hexadecimal entities all become their characters.

  3. 3

    Check for double encoding

    If & appears, the text was escaped twice and a second pass is offered.

  4. 4

    Copy the plain text

    Ready to use anywhere that is not HTML.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. It uses the browser's own HTML parser to resolve them, which covers every one of the 2,231 named entities in the HTML5 specification rather than a hand-written subset.

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