Which characters must be escaped in XML?

XML defines five predefined entities. Two are mandatory in text content — the ampersand & (as &) and the less-than sign is commonly escaped as > to avoid the ]]> sequence, though it is only strictly required there.

What is the difference between XML and HTML escaping?

XML has exactly five named entities and uses ' for the apostrophe. HTML has hundreds of named entities and uses ' (not ') because ' was not part of HTML 4. This tool's XML mode emits ' and the strict five-entity set; use HTML Escape for web pages.

Do I need to escape characters inside CDATA?

No. Text wrapped in a section is taken literally, so . Outside CDATA, use this tool to escape the predefined entities.

Is my XML sent to a server?

No. Escaping and unescaping run entirely in your browser. Your XML documents, attribute values and content never leave your device.

How do I unescape XML entities back to characters?

Paste text containing entities like <tag> and click Unescape. The tool converts & < > " and ' back into &, , " and ', recovering the original markup or text.

XML Escape - Escape & Unescape XML Entities Online

XML Escape & Unescape — the five predefined entities

XML reserves a handful of characters for markup, so reserved characters in your data must be written as predefined entities. The XML 1.0 specification defines exactly five. This tool converts text to and from those entities in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

The five XML predefined entities

Character	Entity	Required in
`&`	`&`	everywhere
`<`	`<`	text & attributes
`>`	`>`	after `]]>`
`"`	`"`	double-quoted attrs
`'`	`'`	single-quoted attrs

XML vs HTML

XML uses ' for the apostrophe; HTML uses ' because ' was not defined in HTML 4. If your output is a web page, use HTML Escape instead.

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XML Escape / Unescape

Free XML escape & unescape tool — the five predefined XML entities

XML Escape & Unescape — the five predefined entities

The five XML predefined entities

XML vs HTML

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