HTML Unescape
Decode the five common HTML special-character entities back to their characters. For full HTML entity decoding (including ©, ®, numeric / hex) use the more powerful HTML Entity Decode tool.
Escaped HTML in, text out
A single decoding pass — so a double-escaped & becomes &, not &. Run it twice if you need to peel two layers.
<a href="x">Hello &amp; 'world'</a>
<a href="x">Hello & 'world'</a>
What you'll use this for
The quick everyday decode for the five core entities — anything more exotic, reach for HTML Entity Decode.
Reading scraped HTML
Decode entity-escaped text in scraped page content.
Form data
Decode field values that came through HTML.
Email body parsing
Decode HTML-escaped variables in email.
Debugging template output
See what the user actually sees after the template renders.
How to HTML-unescape text
Paste escaped HTML
Drop the entity-encoded string into the left editor.
Pick apostrophe handling
Leave on to decode both ' and ', off to only handle '.
Click Unescape
Or leave auto-unescape on for live updates. Runs locally — no upload.
Copy or download
Copy to clipboard or save as .txt. Or jump back to HTML Escape.
Frequently asked questions
The five minimal HTML entities: &, <, >, ", '. For the full HTML entity table use HTML Entity Decode.
Yes when the toggle is on. ' is XHTML/XML; HTML 4 only knows '.
Yes.
This tool covers the minimal set; for the full ~250 named entities use HTML Entity Decode.
About HTML unescaping
HTML unescaping converts character references back to the characters they represent. There are two flavours: minimal (the five characters that have syntactic meaning in HTML — what this tool does) and full (the complete WHATWG named entity table plus numeric and hex references). The minimal flavour is what you reach for when you know your input was produced by a corresponding minimal escape — fast, predictable, and unambiguous.
The five entities decoded
&→&— decoded last so double-escaped sequences come out correctly.<→<and>→>."→"and'(and optionally') →'.
Minimal vs full HTML entity decoding
- HTML Unescape (this tool) — the safe everyday quick tool. Only touches the five entities; everything else is preserved literally.
- HTML Entity Decode — handles named entities like
©, numeric (©), and hex (©) references. Use when input comes from an unknown encoder.