ASCII to HTML Entities Converter Online Free Tool
ASCII to HTML as entities - safe XSS escape, numeric decimal, or numeric hex. Handles emoji via code points. Free, client-side, instant, offline.
Escape text for safe HTML rendering. Pick between named entities for the five HTML-special characters, numeric decimal (A), or numeric hex (A).
How to Use ASCII to HTML Entities Converter Online Free Tool
- Paste or type your text into the input. User-submitted comments, HTML snippets you want to render as code, markdown with angle brackets - anything that needs to land safely inside an HTML document.
- Pick an encoding mode. Safe XSS escape (default) only replaces the five HTML-special characters with named entities - exactly what you want when sanitising user input for display. Numeric decimal produces
Astyle; Numeric hex producesA. - Toggle "Skip printable ASCII" if you're using a numeric mode. When on, letters and digits stay readable and only HTML-special + non-ASCII characters are encoded. When off, every character is encoded.
- Read the live output - the encoder repaints within 150 ms of every keystroke, and the stats line shows the mode, character count, how many were encoded, and how many passed through unchanged.
- Emoji are handled correctly: 😀 becomes
😀in decimal mode (the full code point viacodePointAt), not a pair of surrogate halves. - Copy or Download. Copy writes the encoded text to the clipboard, Download saves a timestamped
.txtfile. Clear wipes everything; Reset options returns the mode and skip toggle to defaults. - Press
Ctrl+Enter(⌘+Enteron Mac) to encode and copy in one shortcut.
Frequently asked questions
What are HTML entities?
Special escape sequences that represent characters the HTML parser would otherwise treat as markup. Named entities like & and < are readable; numeric entities like A (decimal) or A (hex) can represent any Unicode code point.
Why encode text as entities?
To render <script> as text instead of executing it, to show HTML snippets inside documentation, and to smuggle non-ASCII characters through systems that only cope with 7-bit text. It’s the first line of defence against XSS.
Named entities vs numeric entities?
Named entities are human-readable (<, &) but only cover a fixed table. Numeric entities (< or <) cover every Unicode code point. This tool uses named entities for the five HTML-special characters and numeric entities for everything else when you pick a numeric mode.
Is my data secure?
Yes. Encoding runs entirely in your browser – nothing is uploaded, cached, or tracked. After the page loads you can disconnect the network and keep encoding indefinitely.
Does this prevent XSS?
The “Safe XSS escape” mode performs the minimum safe escaping for HTML text content: &, <, >, ", and ' (via '). That is enough for rendering text inside element bodies. For attribute values, URL parameters, or inline JavaScript you still need context-specific escaping – this tool is for HTML text content, not a universal sanitiser.
Does it work offline?
Yes. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are self-contained. Once the page has loaded, you can turn off Wi-Fi and the tool keeps working.
Is it free?
Yes, 100% free with no cap on input length or number of conversions. No sign-up, no premium tier, no watermark.
Does it encode every character?
Only in the numeric modes with “Skip printable ASCII” off. The default Safe mode touches only the five HTML-special characters, and the numeric modes with skip-printable on leave letters and digits readable – encoding only what actually needs it.
Does it handle emoji and non-Latin scripts?
Yes. Iteration uses Array.from + codePointAt, so 😀 encodes as one 😀 (decimal) or 😀 (hex), not as a pair of surrogate halves. CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, Devanagari all round-trip correctly.
How do I decode entities back to text?
Use the sibling HTML Entities to ASCII decoder. It accepts named and numeric (decimal and hex) entities and restores the original characters, including emoji and CJK.