Why do I need to HTML-encode text?

Unescaped HTML characters can break page layout or, worse, allow cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Encoding ensures text is displayed as-is, not interpreted as HTML.

Which characters are encoded?

The five essential characters: & (ampersand), (greater than), " (double quote), and ' (single quote/apostrophe).

Is this the same as URL encoding?

No. HTML encoding uses named entities (like &) for HTML display, while URL encoding uses percent notation (like %26) for URLs. They serve different purposes.

HTML Encode

Encoding Tools

Escape HTML entities for safe display

By DevToolHQ teamUpdated 2026-04-15100% client-sideMethodology

100% client-side processing

Input HTML / Text

About HTML Encode

Converts the five characters with special meaning in HTML — & < > " ' — into their named entity equivalents: & < > " and '. This is the minimum encoding required to safely display arbitrary text inside HTML documents without breaking markup or enabling cross-site scripting attacks. XSS (cross-site scripting) is one of the most common web vulnerabilities. It occurs when user-supplied text is inserted into an HTML page without encoding, allowing an attacker to inject <script> tags or event handlers. Properly HTML-encoding all dynamic content before rendering it in HTML is the primary defense. The five characters handled here cover the vast majority of injection vectors in HTML context. This tool is useful for: preparing strings to paste into HTML templates, sanitizing user input for display in comment sections or form previews, converting code snippets for embedding in blog posts or documentation, and double-checking that your server-side escaping function is producing the right output. Note that HTML encoding is context-specific — encoding for an HTML attribute (especially event handlers like onclick) or a JavaScript string requires different approaches beyond these five characters.