Unescape HTML Entities
Convert HTML entities like & and < back into their readable character forms.
About Unescape HTML Entities
When you scrape a webpage, pull data from an API, or read a raw email, characters like & and < appear instead of the real symbols, because the source escaped them for HTML. This tool converts those entities back to their readable character forms so the text makes sense.
It decodes both named entities — &, <, >, ", ', and among many others — and numeric entities given as decimal or hex codes. Text that has been double-escaped can be decoded repeatedly, and any unknown or invalid entity sequence is left untouched rather than guessed at.
Web scrapers clean up extracted content before storing it, marketers fix display titles pulled from ad platforms, and developers inspect API responses that escape user-generated text. It is the reverse of escaping, and both tools together cover round-tripping text in and out of HTML.
How to Use
- Paste text containing HTML entities.
- Press Unescape.
- Copy the decoded text.
Example
Tom & Jerry Tom & Jerry
The entity & decodes back to the ampersand character, restoring the original text.
FAQ
Which entities are supported?
All named and numeric HTML entities, including &, <, >, ", ', and .
When is unescaping useful?
Cleaning up scraped HTML, emails, or API responses that encode characters you need in readable form.
What if there's no matching entity?
Unknown or invalid entity sequences are left as-is rather than guessed at.
Does it decode entities inside tags too?
Yes. Attribute values and tag content are both decoded, but markup itself is left alone — the tool only converts the entity characters to text.
Is it safe to decode the same text twice?
Decoding normal characters changes nothing, while genuinely double-escaped input — like &amp; — can be decoded again until the original text is revealed, so running the tool a second time is safe.