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HTML Decoder — Convert HTML Entities Back to Characters

HTML Decoder converts HTML entities back to their original characters. It handles the most common entities: &, <, >, ", ', and '. Useful when copying HTML-encoded text from a web page or API response that double-encoded special characters.

When HTML Entities Appear Unexpectedly

HTML entities most commonly appear as a problem in two scenarios. First, double-encoding: a server encodes a string to HTML entities, then the output is fed to another layer that encodes it again, resulting in & in the final HTML. The user sees "&" literally instead of "&". Pasting the string into this decoder reveals whether single or double encoding occurred.

Second, RSS/Atom feeds and XML-based APIs often HTML-encode text content inside CDATA sections or use HTML entities in strings. When you process these programmatically you get the raw entity strings, not the decoded characters. Decoding them before display or further processing is essential.

Email clients and HTML email template systems frequently double-encode special characters. A template may encode an ampersand for safe HTML, then an email service's WYSIWYG editor encodes the & in & again, turning it into &. The recipient sees "&" in the rendered email. Use this decoder to diagnose and fix such issues.

Common Use Cases

  • Cleaning up HTML-encoded text copied from web pages
  • Decoding escaped characters in API responses
  • Reading HTML-encoded content in RSS or Atom feeds

Frequently Asked Questions

What are HTML entities?

HTML entities are special character sequences like &amp; (for &), &lt; (for <), and &gt; (for >). They allow special characters to appear in HTML without being interpreted as markup.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. No data is sent to a server — your input never leaves your machine. SmartDevBox has no account system, no usage tracking, and no paid tier. See the Privacy & Security page for full details.

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