Converter Tools

BBCode Converter

Convert BBCode to HTML and HTML to BBCode in your browser. Handles bold, italic, links, images, lists, quotes, code blocks, color, size, and a live preview.

Direction

Quick samples

BBCode input333 chars

HTML output

<strong>Server maintenance</strong> this weekend.<br>
<br>
We will take the forum offline for <em>about two hours</em> starting Saturday at 02:00 UTC. Please save any drafts before then.<br>
<br>
<blockquote><cite>admin</cite> Thanks for your patience. Subscribers will get a 1-day credit.</blockquote><br>
<br>
Read the full announcement at <a href="https://example.com/news" rel="noopener noreferrer">our news page</a>.

Converted to HTML

Rendered HTML preview

Read only

Server maintenance this weekend.

We will take the forum offline for about two hours starting Saturday at 02:00 UTC. Please save any drafts before then.

admin Thanks for your patience. Subscribers will get a 1-day credit.

Read the full announcement at our news page.

The preview renders the converted HTML inside a sandboxed container. Scripts, iframes, and dangerous URLs are stripped during conversion.

BBCode and HTML cheat sheet

Construct	BBCode	HTML
Bold	`[b]text[/b]`	`<strong>text</strong>`
Italic	`[i]text[/i]`	`<em>text</em>`
Underline	`[u]text[/u]`	`<u>text</u>`
Strikethrough	`[s]text[/s]`	`<s>text</s>`
Link with label	`[url=https://...]label[/url]`	`<a href="https://...">label</a>`
Bare link	`[url]https://...[/url]`	`<a href="https://...">https://...</a>`
Image	`[img]https://.../pic.png[/img]`	`<img src="https://.../pic.png" alt="">`
Quote with author	`[quote=author]text[/quote]`	`<blockquote><cite>author</cite> text</blockquote>`
Code block	`[code=lang]text[/code]`	`<pre><code class="language-lang">text</code></pre>`
Unordered list	`[list][]a[]b[/list]`	`<ul><li>a</li><li>b</li></ul>`
Ordered list	`[list=1][]a[]b[/list]`	`<ol><li>a</li><li>b</li></ol>`
Text color	`[color=#ef4444]text[/color]`	`<span style="color:#ef4444">text</span>`
Text size (1-7 or px)	`[size=18]text[/size]`	`<span style="font-size:18px">text</span>`
Center alignment	`[center]text[/center]`	`<div style="text-align:center">text</div>`
Horizontal rule	`[hr]`	`<hr>`

BBCode is parsed case-insensitively. Unknown tags pass through as literal text. Newlines become <br> tags outside of [code] blocks.

How to use

Pick the direction: BBCode to HTML to post markup from a forum to a CMS, or HTML to BBCode to publish HTML content as a forum post.
Paste your text into the left panel, or load one of the sample posts to see typical inputs like an announcement, a game guide, or a signature.
Read the converted output on the right and check the rendered HTML preview when converting BBCode to confirm the post will display correctly.
Click Copy to copy the result, or use Swap to chain a round trip and confirm the conversion is lossless for your content.
Refer to the BBCode and HTML cheat sheet at the bottom of the page for the exact mapping of every supported tag.

About this tool

BBCode Converter translates between BBCode, the bracketed markup used on phpBB, vBulletin, XenForo, Steam community pages, and many gaming and hobby forums, and HTML. The tool runs both directions: paste a forum post or signature with [b], [i], [url], [img], [quote], [code], [list], [color], [size], and [center] tags to get clean HTML ready to drop into a CMS or static page, or paste an HTML snippet from a blog or docs page to get back BBCode you can post in a thread. A hand-written tokenizer walks the BBCode input once, parses tags case-insensitively, and emits well-formed HTML while keeping the contents of [code] blocks literal and free from accidental re-parsing. In the reverse direction, the browser's own HTML parser builds a DOM tree that the tool walks to emit the matching BBCode, including [list=1] for ordered lists, [quote=author] for blockquotes with a citation, [code=lang] when a code block carries a language class, and image alt text preserved through [img alt=...] form. Links are validated against a small allow-list of safe schemes (http, https, mailto, ftp, tel, sms, root-relative paths, and anchor fragments) so dangerous URLs cannot ride through into the output. Colors accept hex (#abc, #aabbcc), named CSS colors, and rgb()/rgba() values, while sizes accept either the legacy 1 to 7 BBCode scale or a pixel value clamped to a sensible range. A live rendered HTML preview shows exactly how the converted BBCode will look in a browser, with scripts, iframes, and unsupported tags stripped during conversion so the preview is safe to display. Three sample posts (a forum announcement, a game guide with a code block, and a signature with an image and centered avatar) plus a blog-style HTML sample give you typical inputs to test against. A side-by-side cheat sheet lists every supported construct in both dialects, so you can confirm any rule at a glance. The conversion is deterministic and runs entirely in your browser, which means forum drafts, private posts, and unpublished content never leave your device.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.

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