It is the HTML entity for the less-than sign (<). Writing < lets a browser show the character instead of starting a tag.

What are numeric references?

They encode a character by its code point, in decimal (é) or hex (é). They can represent any character.

So special characters display correctly and untrusted text cannot inject markup or scripts into a page.

Which entities can it decode?

Common named entities like &, © and —, plus all decimal and hex numeric references.

Is my text sent to a server?

No. Encoding and decoding happen entirely in your browser.

HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

Also encode non-ASCII

Input

Result

&lt;p class=&quot;x&quot;&gt;Tom &amp; Jerry — café&lt;/p&gt;

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Convert text to HTML entities and back. Escape the characters that have special meaning in HTML — like <, >, & and quotes — so they display as text, and optionally encode non-ASCII characters too. You can also decode named and numeric entities back to plain text. Everything runs in your browser.

How to use

Choose a direction: Encode or Decode.
When encoding, optionally also encode non-ASCII characters.
Paste your text and copy the result.

How it works

Encoding replaces the five characters that matter in HTML — & < > " ' — with their entity equivalents like & and <, so a browser shows them literally instead of treating them as markup. With the non-ASCII option, characters above the basic range become numeric references like é. Decoding reverses this, turning named entities (©) and numeric ones (☕) back into characters.

Features

Escape HTML characters

Encode & < > and both quote types so text is safe to place in HTML.

Non-ASCII option

Optionally turn accented and symbol characters into numeric references.

Decode entities

Convert named and numeric entities back to readable characters.

Two-way

Switch between encoding and decoding with one toggle.

When to use it

Show code in HTML

Display tags and snippets on a page without them rendering.

Insert symbols

Add special characters safely with numeric references.

Email & templates

Escape user content before inserting it into HTML templates.

Read encoded text

Decode entity-laden text from logs or exports back to plain text.

Notes

Decoding supports common named entities plus all numeric references.
The apostrophe is encoded as ' for safe use in attributes.
Escaping helps prevent markup from breaking or injecting into a page.
Everything runs on your device; nothing is uploaded.

FAQ

What is <?: It is the HTML entity for the less-than sign (<). Writing < lets a browser show the character instead of starting a tag.
What are numeric references?: They encode a character by its code point, in decimal (é) or hex (é). They can represent any character.
Why escape HTML?: So special characters display correctly and untrusted text cannot inject markup or scripts into a page.
Is my text sent to a server?: No. Encoding and decoding happen entirely in your browser.