Text Escape / Unescape
Encode or decode HTML entities and Unicode escape sequences.
About Text Escape / Unescape
Text Escape / Unescape encodes and decodes HTML entities and Unicode escape sequences, so you can safely embed text in markup or source code and reverse it just as easily. Use it when a snippet renders as literal & or \u00e9 instead of the character you meant, or when you need to make raw text safe to drop into HTML. It runs fully in your browser with no upload.
- Category
- dev
- Input
- Accepts: text/plain.
- Output
- Outputs: text/plain.
- Cost
- Free, runs in your browser
- Memory
- low
Common uses
- Convert < > & and quotes into HTML entities before pasting user content into a template to prevent broken markup
- Decode an &amp; double-escaped string pulled from a log or API response back into readable text
- Turn accented or emoji characters into \uXXXX escapes so they survive a strict ASCII-only config field
- Unescape a JSON or JavaScript string fragment to read what a \u0041\u0042 sequence actually spells
- Sanitize a chunk of copy for an HTML email so special symbols display consistently across clients
- Recover the original text from a code comment that was stored with Unicode escapes
Frequently asked questions
Which kinds of escaping does it support?
Two families: HTML entities (such as < & ") and Unicode escape sequences (such as \u00e9). You can encode plain text into either form or decode either form back to plain text.
Does it handle named and numeric HTML entities?
Yes. Decoding recognizes named entities like & and © as well as numeric ones like © and ©. Encoding produces the standard entities needed to make text safe in HTML.
Is this the same as URL encoding?
No. URL encoding uses percent-escapes (%20) for query strings and links. For that, use the URL Encoder tool. This tool handles HTML entities and Unicode \u escapes.
Does my text get sent anywhere?
No. Escaping and unescaping happen entirely in your browser. The text never leaves your device.
Can I round-trip text losslessly?
Yes. Encoding then decoding (or vice versa) returns the original text exactly, as long as you use the matching escape family in both directions.
Keywords
- escape
- unescape
- html
- entities
- unicode
- encode
- decode