đ Unescape HTML
Paste escaped HTML entities (such as <, >, and &) and instantly convert them back into readable HTML. Ideal for API responses, JSON, databases, and copied web source.
<p>Hello & Welcome!</p>
â <p>Hello & Welcome!</p>
- Paste or type escaped HTML in the textarea
- The tool automatically decodes HTML entities in real-time
- Decoded HTML shows the decoded HTML source ready to copy and use
- Converts HTML entity codes (like &, <, >) to actual characters
- Handles both named entities and numeric entities
- Perfect for decoding API responses and web content
đ Examples:
- Decode HTML from API responses and web scraping
- Unescape HTML in JSON data or configuration files
- Decode email messages with HTML entities
- Convert escaped HTML from databases
- Debug and inspect web page source code
- Prepare content for display or editing
- Data migration and content transformation
The browser's own parser does the decoding
Your text is written into a hidden textarea and read straight back out, so the lookup table is the full HTML one - roughly 2,200 named entities plus every decimal and hexadecimal form:
<p>Hello & Welcome!</p>
-> <p>Hello & Welcome!</p> 5 entities in, 23 characters out
© © © -> three ways of writing the same ©A textarea can only hold text, never elements, so nothing you paste is executed
or rendered. A tag arriving as <script> decodes to the
characters of a script tag and stays inert on the page.
One pass, and what the two counters watch
- Decoding happens once.
&lt;becomes<, not<. Text that went through an encoder twice - the usual fate of HTML stored in JSON - needs the result pasted back in for a second run. - You get source, not a preview. The panel shows the decoded markup as characters for copying. To go the other way, use Escape HTML.
- Entities Found reads your input and matches the shapes
&word;,&#digits;and&#xhex;. An invented&widget;is counted even though it cannot decode, and a legacy&without its semicolon is not counted at all. - Characters counts the output, which is why it drops as
entities resolve:
&is five characters in and one out.
becomes a real no-break space.
It looks identical to a normal space and will survive a trim, so search for it
before wondering why your line will not wrap.Frequently asked questions
How do I turn < and > back into angle brackets?
Paste the text into the box. Decoding runs as you type and the panel below fills with the real characters, ready to copy into an editor.
Why is my output still full of < and &?
The source was encoded twice, so the first pass only stripped the outer layer. Copy the result, paste it back over your input and it will resolve.
Does it handle ©, and numeric codes?
Yes. Anything the HTML specification names is understood, along with decimal codes like — and hex codes like —, both of which give an em dash.