Free Toolkit

HTML Entity DecoderDecode HTML entities back to their original characters.

HTML Entity Decoder illustration
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HTML Entity Decoder

Decode HTML entities back to their original characters.

How to Use
1

Paste Encoded Text

Paste text containing HTML entities.

2

Auto-Decode

HTML entities are converted back to characters.

3

Copy Result

Copy the decoded text.

What Is HTML Entity Decoder?

The HTML Entity Decoder converts HTML entities back to their original characters. It handles named entities like &amp; (→ &), &lt; (→ <), &gt; (→ >), and many more, as well as decimal numeric entities (&#38;) and hexadecimal numeric entities (&#x26;). This is useful when working with HTML source code, scraping web content, or converting encoded text back to readable form. The decoder supports all common named entities plus any decimal or hexadecimal numeric entity.

Why Use Our HTML Entity Decoder?

  • Convert scraped HTML content to readable text
  • Decode entities found in HTML source code
  • Restore original characters from encoded content
  • Process HTML data for non-HTML contexts

Common Use Cases

Web Scraping

Decode HTML entities in scraped content to get readable text.

Data Processing

Convert HTML-encoded data back to plain text for analysis.

Content Migration

Decode entities when moving content from HTML to other formats.

Debugging

Inspect what characters HTML entities represent.

Technical Guide

The decoder works in three phases. First, it replaces common named entities using a lookup table covering &amp;, &lt;, &gt;, &quot;, &nbsp;, and symbol entities like &copy;, &trade;, &euro;, etc. Second, it processes decimal numeric entities (&#NNN;) using String.fromCharCode(parseInt(code, 10)) to convert the decimal character code to its character. Third, it processes hexadecimal numeric entities (&#xHHH;) similarly with parseInt(code, 16). This covers the full range of HTML entity encoding methods. Named entities are processed first so that partially decoded text does not create false matches in the numeric entity phase.

Tips & Best Practices

  • 1
    Handles both named (&amp;) and numeric (&#38;) entity formats
  • 2
    Useful for cleaning up HTML source before text processing
  • 3
    Supports currency, copyright, and special symbol entities
  • 4
    Combine with HTML tag stripping for full text extraction

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Frequently Asked Questions

QWhat types of entities can it decode?
Named entities (like &amp;), decimal numeric (like &#38;), and hexadecimal numeric (like &#x26;).
QDoes it handle all named entities?
It covers the most common named entities. Less common ones may need to be in numeric format.
QWill it strip HTML tags too?
No, it only decodes entities. Use the HTML to Markdown tool to strip tags and convert to text.
QWhat is &nbsp;?
&nbsp; is a non-breaking space. The decoder converts it to a regular space character.
QCan it handle double-encoded entities?
It handles single-level encoding. For double-encoded text (like &amp;amp;), run the decoder twice.

About HTML Entity Decoder

HTML Entity Decoder is a free online tool from FreeToolkit.ai. All processing happens directly in your browser — your data never leaves your device. No registration required. No ads. Just fast, reliable tools.