HTML Entities to Text

Convert HTML-encoded text back to plain readable characters. Handles named entities (&, <), decimal numeric entities (<), and hex numeric entities (<) — all in one pass.

Last updated: May 28, 2026

HTML-encoded input

Output

Handles: named entities (&, <, >), decimal (<), and hex (<) numeric entities — all in one pass.

Client-Side Processing

Input Data Stays on Device

Instant Local Execution

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What is HTML Entities to Text?

HTML entity decoding is the reverse of HTML escaping. It takes encoded text that a browser or parser would render as special characters and converts it back to the original readable characters.

This comes up when scraping web content that contains escaped text, reading source-encoded data from APIs or CMS exports, debugging template output that over-escaped user content, or copying text from HTML source where characters were encoded for safe rendering.

How to Use HTML Entities to Text

Paste the text containing HTML entities into the input field

The decoded output appears instantly

Named entities (&, <, >, ", '), decimal (<), and hex (<) are all handled

Copy the plain text output with the copy button

Use clear to reset both fields

Common Use Cases

Developers reading API responses or CMS exports where text was HTML-escaped before storage.
Web scrapers cleaning up extracted content that contains escaped entities from the source HTML.
Content editors recovering readable text from HTML source that was over-encoded during export.
QA engineers verifying that HTML templates correctly encode and decode round-trip content.
Data engineers cleaning scraped datasets that contain &, ", or numeric entities in text fields.

Example Input and Output

A common case is CMS export or API response text where the content was HTML-escaped before storage.

HTML-encoded text

Tom &amp; Jerry said &quot;It&#39;s &lt;b&gt;great&lt;/b&gt; to meet you!&quot;

Plain text

Tom & Jerry said "It's <b>great</b> to meet you!"

Round-trip tip

If your decoded output still contains entities, the original text may have been double-encoded. Run the output through the decoder a second time.

Browser-side only

All processing happens locally in your browser. No text is sent to any server.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of HTML entities does this decode?

All three types: named entities like &, <, >, ", '; decimal numeric entities like <, &; and hexadecimal numeric entities like <, &.

Does it handle the full HTML5 named entity list?

This tool covers the most common entities found in practical use. For rare named entities outside the standard set (&, <, >, ", ', /, `, =), numeric forms are always safe to use.

Can I also encode text to HTML entities here?

Yes. Use the "Encode" button to convert raw characters back to HTML entities, and "Decode" to reverse the operation.

Why would text have HTML entities outside of HTML files?

HTML entities often appear in RSS feeds, XML exports, database content originally sourced from web forms, CMS template engines, and email marketing platforms that apply HTML encoding to all stored text.

Is my content processed on the server?

No. Encoding and decoding run entirely in your browser. Your text never leaves your device.

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