Paste escaped XML and the decoder replaces the five predefined entities and every numeric character reference with the real character. For example, <b>Tom & Jerry</b> becomes a literal bold tag around Tom & Jerry, with 5 references decoded. Anything XML does not define is left as it was and flagged.
Log files, SOAP responses, RSS feeds and database exports often hold XML that has been escaped so it can sit inside another document. Reading it in that state is slow: every angle bracket is four characters and every accented letter may be a number. This decoder reverses the escaping for the five entities XML 1.0 predefines (lt, gt, amp, quot, apos) and for decimal and hexadecimal character references, then lists each reference it replaced and how often. It works in a single pass, exactly as an XML parser does, so text that was escaped twice comes out escaped once. HTML-only names such as nbsp or eacute are not part of XML without a DTD, so they are kept and reported rather than guessed.
Paste into the box or open a .txt or .xml file from your device; it is read locally.
The plain version appears as you type, along with how many references were replaced.
Each distinct entity or code point is listed with the character it became and its count.
References XML does not define, or code points outside the allowed range, are kept and listed.
Result Decoded text: <b>Tom & Jerry</b>
References decoded: 5
Distinct references: 3
Characters before: 34
Characters after: 18
Five entities of three kinds turn back into a literal tag with an ampersand inside.
Result Decoded text: © 2024 €5
References decoded: 2
Distinct references: 2
Characters before: 21
Characters after: 9
© is decimal for the copyright sign and € is hexadecimal for the euro sign.
Result Decoded text: <tag>
References decoded: 2
Distinct references: 1
Characters before: 19
Characters after: 11
One pass removes one layer, so doubly escaped markup comes out still escaped once; run the output through again to finish.
&name; → predefined character; &#N; → code point N (decimal); &#xH; → code point H (hexadecimal)
nameN, HThe text is scanned once from left to right. Each reference ending in a semicolon is replaced if XML 1.0 defines it: the five predefined entities, or a numeric reference whose code point is a legal XML character (tab, line feed, carriage return, U+0020 to U+D7FF, U+E000 to U+FFFD, or U+10000 to U+10FFFF). Surrogates, control characters and unknown names stay untouched. Because the replacement is not repeated, < yields < and not the bracket.
Only five without a DTD: < for the less-than sign, > for greater-than, & for the ampersand, " for the double quote and ' for the apostrophe. Everything else must be declared in a DTD or written as a numeric reference.
It is an HTML entity, not an XML one. An XML parser without a DTD would reject it, so the decoder keeps it as typed and adds a warning. Its numeric form, , is decoded.
Both point to U+00A9, the copyright sign. The first gives the code point in decimal, the second in hexadecimal after the x. Uppercase and lowercase hex digits are both accepted.
XML 1.0 forbids most control characters, the UTF-16 surrogate range U+D800 to U+DFFF, and U+FFFE and U+FFFF. A reference to one of those is not a legal character, so it is kept as written and listed in the warning.
No special handling is applied. Inside a real CDATA section entities are literal text, so if your input contains CDATA blocks, decode only the parts outside them.
No. Decoding runs in your browser, and a file you open is read on your device without being sent anywhere.
Using this tool in an assignment, article or report? Copy a citation, or a link for your website.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. (2026, October 12). XML Decoder. Tools Directory. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://tools.milunir.com/converters/text-encoding/xml-decoder/
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “XML Decoder.” Tools Directory, 12 Oct. 2026, https://tools.milunir.com/converters/text-encoding/xml-decoder/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “XML Decoder.” Tools Directory. Last modified October 12, 2026. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://tools.milunir.com/converters/text-encoding/xml-decoder/.
<a href="https://tools.milunir.com/converters/text-encoding/xml-decoder/">XML Decoder – Tools Directory</a>