HTML Encoder
Encode plain text or HTML into HTML entities instantly.
Plain HTML / Text Input:
Encoded Output:
How to Encode Text to HTML Entities
Type or paste HTML or plain text into the box above and it encodes to HTML entities instantly — no button to click. Characters like <, >, and & have special meaning in HTML, so encoding them lets a browser display the literal characters instead of interpreting them as markup. This page only encodes; if you need to decode entities back to plain HTML instead, use our HTML Entity Encode/Decode tool.
Example
The text <div> encodes to <div>, so a browser renders the literal characters instead of an HTML tag.
Common Use Cases
- Safely displaying code snippets or HTML markup as visible text on a webpage.
- Preventing user-submitted text from being interpreted as HTML (a first layer of XSS defense).
- Preparing HTML characters for embedding inside XML, JSON, or template attributes.
FAQs
Is this enough to prevent XSS attacks on its own?
Encoding output is one important layer of defense, but a complete security approach also includes proper input validation and context-aware escaping throughout your application.
Which characters get encoded?
Angle brackets, ampersands, and non-ASCII characters are converted into their numeric HTML entity equivalents (e.g. <), leaving standard ASCII letters, numbers, and punctuation untouched.
Does this tool also decode HTML entities?
This page is encode-only, for a simpler, focused experience. Use our HTML Entity Encode/Decode tool if you need to convert entities back into plain HTML.