What is XML Escape?
An XML escape tool converts special characters in text into XML entity references so they can be safely embedded inside XML elements and attributes. The five characters that must be escaped in XML are ampersand (&), less-than (<), greater-than (>), double quote ("), and single quote (').
Without escaping, a string like Price < $100 inside an XML element would break the parser because the < is interpreted as the start of a new tag. Escaping produces Price < $100, which parsers read as literal text. This is essential when generating XML from user input, database fields, or dynamic templates.
Our XML escape tool also supports unescaping — converting entity references back to their original characters. This is useful when debugging SOAP responses, reading escaped HTML snippets inside XML CDATA alternatives, or preparing text for display after extraction from an XML document.
All encoding and decoding runs locally in your browser. Sensitive payloads from enterprise integrations, healthcare HL7 messages, or internal SOAP services never leave your device. Paste, escape or unescape, and copy the result instantly.
Pair this tool with the XML Formatter to beautify documents after escaping content, or use XML to JSON when you need to convert structured XML into JSON for modern APIs.
When should you use XML Escape?
Embed user-generated text inside XML templates for RSS feeds, SOAP envelopes, or configuration exports without breaking document structure.
Debug escaped XML snippets copied from logs, API responses, or error messages by unescaping them back to readable text.
Prepare strings for XML attributes that contain quotation marks, such as HTML fragments or JSON embedded in XML metadata.
Validate escaping rules before shipping code that serializes objects to XML in Java, C#, Python, or Node.js backends.
How to Use XML Escape
- Paste text or XML content into the input editor.
- Choose Escape to encode special characters, or Unescape to decode entities.
- Click Run to process the text.
- Copy or download the result.
Features
- Escape & < > " ' to XML entities (&, <, >, ", ')
- Unescape entity references back to original characters
- Toggle between encode and decode modes
- Copy output or download as a text file
- 100% browser-based — no server upload
- Instant processing with sample data
- Works with Unicode and multiline text
- Free with no sign-up or usage limits
Example
The input contains XML-like text with unescaped special characters. Escaping converts < and > to < and >, & to &, and quotes to " so the entire string can be stored safely as text content or attribute values without being parsed as markup.
Raw text
<title>Tom & Jerry "Special"</title>Escaped XML
<title>Tom & Jerry "Special"</title>Common Errors
Double-escaping entities
Running escape on already-escaped text turns & into &, producing &amp; which displays incorrectly.
Fix: Use Unescape first if unsure, then Escape once. Check whether your source data is already entity-encoded.
Escaping entire XML documents
Escaping a full XML file converts all tags to entities, making the document unparseable as XML.
Fix: Only escape the text content or attribute values that contain special characters, not the structural tags themselves.
Invalid entity on unescape
Malformed sequences like & or &unknown; may not decode as expected.
Fix: Verify entity names are valid: amp, lt, gt, quot, apos. Use the XML Formatter to validate document structure separately.
Best Practices
- Escape user input at the boundary where text enters XML, not repeatedly at every layer.
- Use CDATA sections for large blocks of text that contain many special characters, when your XML schema allows it.
- Prefer standard entity names over numeric character references unless you need non-ASCII characters.
- Test round-trip escape and unescape on sample data before processing production payloads.