HTML Escape / Unescape

By the FastFreeTools Editorial Team · Last reviewed: May 2026 · See our Editorial Policy for methodology, sourcing, and disclaimers.

Convert special characters to HTML entities and back. Essential for preventing XSS attacks and displaying raw HTML.

About this tool

HTML escaping converts special characters like <, >, &, and quotes into their HTML entity equivalents. This is critical for preventing cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. When user input is displayed on a web page without escaping, attackers can inject malicious scripts. Our HTML Escape tool handles both encoding (text to entities) and decoding (entities back to text) instantly in your browser.

How to use HTML Escape / Unescape

  1. Paste HTML or text into the input.
  2. Click 'Escape' to convert to entities.
  3. Or click 'Unescape' to convert back.
  4. Copy the result with one click.

Tips & best practices

  • Always escape user input before displaying in HTML.
  • The five essential characters: &, <, >, ", '.
  • Double-escaping causes display issues.
  • Use unescape to debug raw entity display.

Common use cases

  • Sanitizing user input for web apps.
  • Displaying code in HTML documentation.
  • Debugging HTML rendering issues.
  • Preparing content for email templates.

Privacy

This tool runs entirely in your browser. We do not upload, store, log, or process your input on any server. Open your browser's DevTools Network tab to verify — there is no outbound request with your data. See our Privacy Policy for details.

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