What is HTML Decode?

Web pages store special characters in disguise. Where you see an ampersand on screen, the page source may contain "&amp;" — an HTML entity. The HTML Decode tool strips away those disguises, turning entities back into the characters they stand for: "&lt;" becomes "<", "&copy;" becomes "©".

Encoded entities surface whenever content moves between systems that speak HTML and systems that do not. Scraped web text arrives full of entities, CMS exports store them in the database, email templates carry them in markup, and API responses sometimes double-encode them. Decoding restores the text to the form a human actually wrote.

How to use

1. Paste the entity-encoded text into the input box. It can be a fragment ("Fish &amp; Chips") or an entire copied page source.
2. The decoder recognizes named entities (&amp;, &lt;, &nbsp;), decimal numeric entities (&#38;), and hexadecimal numeric entities (&#x26;).
3. Click decode. Every recognized entity is replaced with its character in a single pass, leaving surrounding plain text untouched.
4. Copy the clean text. Unknown or malformed entities are left as-is and highlighted so you can inspect them.

Common use cases

• Cleaning scraped content: Web scrapers return raw HTML text littered with entities. Decode the batch to get publishable plain text.
• CMS migration: Moving articles between platforms often exposes stored entities in the new editor. Decode them before the content goes live looking broken.
• Email template work: Templates copied from builders contain entities for every special character. Decoding gives you editable source text.
• Fixing double encoding: Text that passed through two encoders shows entities like "&amp;amp;". Run decode twice to peel both layers off.

Example

Input:  5 < 10 & 10 > 5 — that's logic!
Output: 5 < 10 & 10 > 5 — that's logic!

FAQs

What is the difference between named and numeric entities?

Named entities use memorable words ("&amp;" for &), while numeric entities use the character's code point ("&#38;" or "&#x26;" for the same &). Both represent identical characters, and the decoder handles all three forms interchangeably.

Can it fix double-encoded text?

Yes, by running decode twice. Double encoding turns & into "&amp;amp;" — the first pass reduces it to "&amp;", the second to "&". If your text still shows entity fragments after one pass, run it again.

Does decoding execute any scripts?

No. Decoding is pure text substitution — it never parses or runs HTML. A decoded "<script>" is just the inert characters <script> in your output box, completely harmless.

Which entities are supported?

The full HTML5 named entity set (over 2,000 names, including "&copy;", "&euro;", "&mdash;") plus all valid decimal and hexadecimal numeric references. Anything unrecognized is preserved verbatim so no data is lost.