What is the difference between HTML tags and elements?

HTML tags vs. elements vs. attributes

HTML elements

An element in HTML represents some kind of structure or semantics and generally consists of a start tag, content, and an end tag. The following is a paragraph element:

<p>
This is the content of the paragraph element.
</p>

HTML tags

Tags are used to mark up the start and end of an HTML element.

<p></p>

HTML attributes

An attribute defines a property for an element, consists of an attribute/value pair, and appears within the element’s start tag. An element’s start tag may contain any number of space separated attribute/value pairs.

The most popular misuse of the term “tag” is referring to alt attributes as “alt tags”. There is no such thing in HTML. Alt is an attribute, not a tag.

<img src="foobar.gif" alt="A foo can be balanced on a bar by placing its fubar on the bar's foobar.">

Source: 456bereastreet.com: HTML tags vs. elements vs. attributes

HTML tag is just opening or closing entity. For example:

<p> and </p> are called HTML tags

HTML element encompasses opening tag, closing tag, content (optional for content-less tags) Eg:

<p>This is the content</p> : This complete thing is called a HTML element