Markdown → Plain Text
Strip all Markdown formatting and keep readable plain text — useful for previews, summaries, email, character counts.
Output appears here.
How to use
- Paste Markdown content in the left panel.
- Optionally toggle 'keep link URLs' or 'collapse blank lines'.
- Copy the plain text from the right panel.
About this tool
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Strip Markdown down to readable plain text: headings lose their hashes, emphasis and strikethrough lose their markers, code fences and inline backticks give up the code inside, images collapse to their alt text, blockquote arrows go, list bullets become a real bullet character, horizontal rules disappear and tables become tab-separated columns you can paste into a spreadsheet. Links are the one place with a choice: keep the URL in parentheses after the text when the destination still matters, or drop it entirely for prose that is going to be read rather than clicked. Reference-style link definitions are removed either way, since they are markup rather than content. Useful for email, plain-text exports and word-count checks.
Frequently asked questions
Does this remove every Markdown syntax?
It handles the CommonMark + GFM essentials: headings, emphasis, code (inline and block), images, links, lists, blockquotes, tables, HTML tags, and horizontal rules. Esoteric extensions may slip through.
Why don't my code blocks get their fences kept?
The fences (the lines of three backticks) are syntax, not content. The code inside is preserved as plain text — fences would be noise in a plain-text version.
Why are list items shown with bullets?
Pure plain text loses list structure entirely. A leading bullet (•) is a compromise that keeps visual hierarchy without inventing formatting.
Is this the same as what Markdown renderers do?
No — renderers convert to HTML. This converts to text, which is a different (smaller) target. Use this when you need a non-formatted string, not a formatted page.
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