Question 1

What are HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have special meaning in HTML (like < > & ") or characters that are difficult to type. They start with & and end with ;. For example, & represents &, < represents <, and > represents >.

Question 2

What is the difference between named and numeric entities?

Accepted Answer

Named entities use a descriptive name (like & for &), while numeric entities use a number preceded by # (like &#38; for &). Hex entities use #x followed by a hex number (like &#x26; for &). All three forms are valid HTML.

Question 3

When should I encode HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

You should encode HTML entities when displaying user-generated content to prevent XSS attacks, when including special characters in HTML attributes, or when you need to display HTML code as text on a webpage.

Question 4

Is this tool free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder is completely free with no limits. All processing happens in your browser — no data is sent to any server.

HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

Common HTML Entity Reference

Get NexTool Pro