Overview
HTML Unescape turns escaped entities back into their source characters, so copied snippets, API payloads, and stored content become readable again. It is useful when text arrives double-escaped, when markup needs to be inspected before rendering, or when you need to recover punctuation, angle brackets, and quotes from entity form. The result is plain decoded text, not validation or sanitization. If the input contains tags, those tags will reappear in the output exactly as decoded, so review the content before using it in a page or editor. This tool is best for restoring content to its readable form so you can inspect the real characters that were originally encoded.
Use cases
- Restore copied email snippetsTurn entity-filled text from newsletters, support emails, or mail templates back into readable copy with the original punctuation and tags.
- Inspect stored CMS fragmentsReveal whether article or product content was saved as escaped markup, so you can confirm the exact characters before editing.
- Check API responsesDecode payload fields that return escaped HTML inside JSON or XML, making it easier to compare source text with displayed output.
- Recover double-escaped textFix strings that contain entities inside entities, such as < or ", and read the content the way users were meant to see it.
How it works
- 1
Paste escaped HTML or text into the input.
- 2
The tool decodes named entities such as &, <, >, ", ', plus decimal and hexadecimal numeric entities.
- 3
Copy the decoded output for review, editing, or reuse.
Examples
Decode escaped tags
Input: <h2>Winter Sale</h2>
Output: <h2>Winter Sale</h2>
Restores angle brackets so the heading tag is visible again.
Recover mixed symbols
Input: Price: 19 & tax, size "L"
Output: Price: 19 & tax, size "L"
Turns common named entities back into normal punctuation.
Decode numeric entities
Input: Français — café
Output: Français — café
Converts decimal entities into the original accented letters and dash.
Unescape double-encoded text
Input: &lt;span class=&quot;note&quot;&gt;Done&lt;/span&gt;
Output: <span class="note">Done</span>
Removes one layer of escaping so the real markup becomes readable.
FAQ
Does this tool remove HTML tags?
No. It only decodes entities. If the input contains escaped tags, those tags are restored in the output instead of being stripped.
Why do I still see angle brackets after decoding?
That means the original text contained markup. The tool is showing the decoded characters exactly as they were encoded, which is expected behavior.
Can it decode both decimal and hexadecimal entities?
Yes. It handles common named entities and numeric forms such as © and ©.
What happens with invalid or incomplete entities?
Unrecognized sequences are left as-is rather than guessed. If a semicolon is missing or the code is invalid, review the source string for mistakes.
Why does double-escaped text need two passes?
If the source contains &lt; instead of <, the first decoding step only removes the outer layer. Decode again if you need to collapse multiple escaping layers.