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HTML Escape / Unescape

Escape or unescape HTML entities quickly.

Use the tool

Use HTML Escape / Unescape to convert reserved markup characters into entities or decode entity-heavy text back into readable content.

Dev Workbench

HTML Escape / Unescape

Escape or unescape HTML entities quickly.

Input

Result

Run the tool to see output.
Lines: 0Chars: 0

Why use HTML Escape / Unescape

  • Escape HTML snippets so code examples display as text instead of rendering as tags.
  • Decode entity-heavy CMS content, scraped text, RSS data, or template output.
  • Convert ampersands, angle brackets, quotes, apostrophes, and nonbreaking spaces.
  • Prepare safer display of user-submitted text before it appears inside HTML.

About this tool

HTML entity encoding and decoding

HTML Escape / Unescape converts reserved characters such as ampersands, angle brackets, and quotes into entities, then converts entities back into readable text when needed.

Display code safely

Escaping is useful when a page needs to show HTML as text. Without entities, the browser may treat angle brackets as real tags instead of visible code.

Security context matters

Escaping is one layer of safe output handling, but real XSS prevention depends on the exact HTML, attribute, URL, script, and CSS context used by your application.

Example usage

Input

<div title="A & B">Hello</div>

Output

&lt;div title=&quot;A &amp; B&quot;&gt;Hello&lt;/div&gt;

Practical guide for HTML Escape / Unescape

Best practices

  • Escape HTML code examples before publishing them inside a web page.
  • Decode entities when inspecting CMS exports, feeds, scraped text, or template output.
  • Use framework-safe rendering and context-aware escaping for production security.

Common mistakes

  • Using one escaping rule for HTML text, attributes, URLs, CSS, and JavaScript contexts.
  • Double-escaping content and showing visible entity codes to users.
  • Assuming entity encoding alone sanitizes malicious HTML.

How this tool works

  1. Step 1

    Open HTML Escape / Unescape and review the default example input.

  2. Step 2

    Paste your own input or upload source data when required.

  3. Step 3

    Run HTML Escape / Unescape to generate output instantly in the browser.

  4. Step 4

    Verify the output using the preview and formatting helpers on the page.

  5. Step 5

    Copy the final result and continue with a related tool if needed.

Use related links to continue your workflow and keep your output consistent across ToolHarbor pages.

HTML FormatterFormat HTML into a readable structure.HTML MinifierMinify HTML by removing unnecessary spaces.HTML to Markdown ConverterConvert HTML blocks into Markdown syntax.Markdown to HTML ConverterConvert Markdown text to clean HTML output.JSON Escape / UnescapeEscape or unescape JSON-safe string content.

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FAQ

What characters should be escaped in HTML?

Common characters include ampersand, less-than, greater-than, double quote, apostrophe, and sometimes nonbreaking spaces or non-ASCII characters.

What is HTML unescape used for?

It decodes entities such as &amp;, &lt;, &#169;, and &#x3C; back into readable characters.

Does escaping prevent every XSS issue?

No. Escaping must match the output context, and applications still need proper sanitization, validation, and framework-safe rendering.

When should I escape code examples?

Escape them before placing HTML snippets inside a page where they should be displayed as text rather than executed or rendered.