When should I use 'minimal' vs 'all non-ASCII'?

Minimal is right for almost every HTML context — UTF-8 pages render é, 한, 中 etc. directly, so only the five characters that confuse the HTML parser need to be escaped. Use 'all non-ASCII' when the destination must stay in pure ASCII (e.g., legacy email templates).

Named vs numeric entities — which is best?

Named entities (©) are easier to read, decimal (©) and hex (©) work for any code point even if no name exists. All three decode the same.

Does decoding handle &#xNN; and &#NN;?

Yes. The decoder accepts named, decimal, and hex forms in a single pass.

Are emoji and supplementary characters supported?

Yes — encoding uses code points, so characters outside the BMP (😀, 𝕏, etc.) encode and decode correctly.

HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

Escape text safely for use in HTML, or recover the original text from an entity-encoded string. Pick between minimal escaping (only the dangerous five — & < > " ') and full escaping of every non-ASCII character, and choose named (&), decimal (&), or hex (&) entity output. Decoding accepts all three forms in one pass.

—

Scope

Input

Output

&lt;div class=&quot;hello&quot;&gt;Tom &amp; Jerry — &quot;café&quot; © 2026&lt;/div&gt;

How to use

Pick Encode or Decode.
For encoding, choose minimal vs all non-ASCII, and named / decimal / hex.
Paste your text — the result updates as you type.
Swap reuses the output as the next input.

Frequently asked questions

When should I use 'minimal' vs 'all non-ASCII'?: Minimal is right for almost every HTML context — UTF-8 pages render é, 한, 中 etc. directly, so only the five characters that confuse the HTML parser need to be escaped. Use 'all non-ASCII' when the destination must stay in pure ASCII (e.g., legacy email templates).
Named vs numeric entities — which is best?: Named entities (©) are easier to read, decimal (©) and hex (©) work for any code point even if no name exists. All three decode the same.
Does decoding handle &#xNN; and &#NN;?: Yes. The decoder accepts named, decimal, and hex forms in a single pass.
Are emoji and supplementary characters supported?: Yes — encoding uses code points, so characters outside the BMP (😀, 𝕏, etc.) encode and decode correctly.

Guides on this topic

Why your text turns into strange characters A name comes out as Ã©, a Korean file becomes a wall of nonsense, or every accent is a black diamond. Text is stored as bytes and an encoding is only an agreement about what those bytes mean, so the damage tells you exactly which agreement was broken.

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