HTML Entity Decoder Online

Convert HTML entities back to readable characters — decode & < > and numeric entities

What Is HTML Entity Decoding?

HTML entity decoding converts entity references back into their original characters. Named entities like &lt;, &gt;, &amp;, and &quot; are replaced with their corresponding characters: <, >, &, and ". Numeric entities like &#60; (decimal) and &#x3C; (hexadecimal) are similarly decoded to their Unicode character equivalents.

Developers need HTML decoding when extracting plain text from HTML sources, processing web scraping results, reading content exported from CMS platforms that aggressively entity-encode text, cleaning up API responses that return HTML-encoded content, and converting HTML content back to plain text for display in non-HTML contexts like CSV exports, emails, or mobile notifications. Decoding restores the original human-readable text from its safely encoded HTML representation.

How to Decode HTML Entities Online

1. Paste your HTML-encoded text containing entity references into the input field
2. Click Decode to convert all entities back to their original characters
3. Review the readable output — entities like &amp; become &, &lt; becomes <
4. Copy the decoded plain text for use in your application, data processing, or content
5. Use the Encode option to convert back to entities when needed

Why Use PinusX for HTML Decoding?

PinusX decodes HTML entities with 100% client-side processing in your browser. Your encoded content never leaves your device. This matters when decoding HTML from internal web applications, CMS exports, or scraped content that may contain proprietary information, user data, or business-sensitive text. In November 2025, jsonformatter.org leaked over 80,000 user credentials that had been processed through their servers. PinusX runs the entire decoding algorithm locally in your browser tab using JavaScript — no data is transmitted, stored, or accessible to any external party.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the decoder handle all HTML entity types?

Yes. The decoder supports named entities (&amp;amp;, &amp;lt;, &amp;gt;, &amp;mdash;, etc.), decimal numeric entities (&amp;#60;, &amp;#169;), and hexadecimal numeric entities (&amp;#x3C;, &amp;#xA9;). All 2,231 named HTML entities defined in the HTML5 specification are recognized and correctly decoded.

Can I decode HTML entities in bulk?

Yes. Paste any amount of text containing HTML entities and the decoder processes all of them simultaneously. Whether your text has 5 entities or 5,000, every recognized entity reference in the input is converted to its corresponding character in a single operation.

What happens with unrecognized entity names?

If the input contains an ampersand followed by text that does not match any known entity name and is not a valid numeric reference, the decoder preserves it as-is. This prevents data loss when processing text that uses ampersands in non-entity contexts.

Is HTML decoding the same as HTML stripping?

No. HTML decoding converts entities to characters but preserves HTML tags. HTML stripping removes all tags entirely. If you decode &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hello&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;, you get <p>Hello</p> (with tags). Stripping would give you just Hello. These are different operations for different purposes.

Your data never leaves your browser. 100% client-side processing.