How to use the HTML to text converter
- 1Paste HTML into the HTML box, or press Example. The text appears as you type.
- 2Choose how Links appear: Text only, Text (URL) or Markdown [text](URL).
- 3Set Headings (plain, Markdown
#or UPPER CASE) and Table cells (tabs or|), and decide on Bullets and numbers for lists and Keep image alt text. - 4Press Copy or Download (
text.txt). The footer shows the word count.
Example
<h1>Spring sale</h1> <p>Everything is <strong>20% off</strong> until Friday. <a href="https://example.com/sale">See the sale</a> & save.</p> <ul><li>Shirts</li><li>Shoes</li></ul> <script>trackVisit()</script>
Spring sale Everything is 20% off until Friday. See the sale (https://example.com/sale) & save. - Shirts - Shoes
Links: Text (URL). The script is removed with its content; and & are decoded.
What's kept and what's removed
All tags are removed, but the structure they express is turned into plain-text layout: paragraphs, headings and block elements are separated by blank lines, <br> becomes a line break, and <hr> becomes ---. Text inside <pre> keeps its spacing exactly.
Elements whose content isn't readable text are removed entirely, content included: <script>, <style>, <head>, <noscript>, <template>, <svg>, <iframe>, <canvas>, <select> and <button>. Comments are dropped. Inline formatting (bold, italic, spans) disappears without leaving gaps.
Line breaks, lists and tables
List items each go on their own line. With Bullets and numbers for lists ticked they start with - or 1. (respecting an <ol start>), and nested lists are indented by two spaces per level. Untick it for one item per line without markers.
Table rows become lines, and cells are separated by a tab (pastes into a spreadsheet as columns) or by | for something readable in an email. Runs of spaces and line breaks in the source are collapsed the way a browser displays them, so the text matches what the page shows rather than how its code was indented.
Links: keep URLs or drop them
Links controls what happens to <a href>:
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| Text only | See the sale |
| Text (URL) | See the sale (https://example.com/sale) |
| Markdown | See the sale |
With Text (URL), the URL isn't repeated when the link text already is the URL, and mailto: is dropped from email links. Links that only jump within the page (#top) or run JavaScript are kept as text only. The text-plus-URL form is the usual choice for the plain-text part of an HTML email.
Entities and special characters
HTML entities are decoded to the characters they stand for: & → &, < → <, é → é, € and € → €, — → —. A non-breaking space ( ) becomes a normal space, so words don't stick together in the text. Invalid numeric references become the replacement character �, as browsers do. With Keep image alt text ticked, images appear as [image: alt text], which keeps the meaning of image-only links. To count the words in the result, use the word counter.
Is my text private?
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your text is not uploaded to our servers.