strips headings · emphasis · code · links · lists

Strip Markdown to plain text

Removes every Markdown syntax — headings, bold, italic, code blocks, links, lists, blockquotes, HTML tags — leaving readable prose.

Markdown → Text
Input
130 B
13 lines
Output
60 B
8 lines
Status
ready
live
Ratio
0.46×
out/in
input · markdown
output · plain text
Title

Bold and italic with link.
one
two
three

Quote here.
Quick Start

How to strip Markdown

Removes Markdown syntax with regex passes, preserving the text content. Useful for plain-text export, search indexing, or accessibility.

  1. 01

    Paste Markdown

    Any GFM or CommonMark document.

    Parsing runs through marked with GFM extensions enabled — tables, task lists, strikethrough, and fenced code blocks all match GitHub’s rendering.

    mdGFMmarkedCommonMarklive
    input · markdownmd · GFM
    # Title
    **bold**
    loaded · GFMGFM · ready
  2. 02

    Live strip

    Headings, emphasis, code, links, lists, HTML — all gone.

    Soft-break behaviour is configurable: by default a single newline becomes a space (CommonMark), toggle on for chat-style <br> insertion.

    stripsoft-breaksoptionsconfiglive
    out · optionstext · live
    Title
    bold
    options applied · livelive
  3. 03

    Inspect

    Compare with the original — only readable prose remains.

    The preview is scoped under a .mde class so its CSS doesn’t bleed into the rest of the page. Output HTML is whitespace-controlled for clean diffs.

    diffpreviewscoped CSSrenderstable
    check · renderedok · ready
    prose only
    rendered · liverendered
  4. 04

    Copy or download

    Drop into a TTS engine, search index, or analytics pipeline.

    Export covers both raw Markdown and rendered HTML; downloads stream as text/markdown or text/html via Blob + object URL.

    exportclipboard.md.htmlblob
    ✓ · exportedtxt · done
    ✓ Copied
    shipped · ready to shipsuccess
Pro tips

Author Markdown that renders everywhere

GFM is the safe default

GitHub-Flavored Markdown is the de-facto baseline (tables, task lists, strikethrough). CommonMark is stricter but ubiquitous as a fallback.

Soft-break behaviour varies

A single newline is a space in CommonMark, a <br> in GFM. Toggle soft breaks when source matters.

Escape inside code fences

Backticks inside fenced blocks need a longer fence — three becomes four. Use ~~~ if your content has many backticks.

Anchors are slugified

GitHub lowercases, strips punctuation, and joins with hyphens. Duplicate headings get -1, -2 suffixes.

Tables need a header row

The dash row sets alignment (:---, :-:, ---:). Use Table Aligner for diff-friendly columns.

Front matter is YAML

Triple-dash blocks at the top of files are parsed by static-site generators. Use the Front-Matter Validator to catch syntax errors.

Use Cases

When to strip Markdown

Search, TTS, analytics, accessibility.

Search indexing

Index clean text in Elasticsearch / Algolia. Render path uses marked with GFM extensions enabled (tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks), so what you preview matches what GitHub publishes bit-for-bit. Soft-break behaviour is configurable for chat-style vs prose Markdown.

GFM-compliant

Text-to-speech

Feed readable prose to a TTS engine. Pairs cleanly with the Markdown Cheatsheet for syntax you can't quite remember — callout blocks, footnotes, definition lists. Output stays diff-friendly so style-only changes don't drown out real edits in PRs.

a11y-friendly

Analytics

Word-count or sentiment on real prose only. Cross-platform safe: anchors, code fences, and tables behave identically on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Gitea. Heading-anchor slugs follow GitHub's lowercase-and-hyphenate rules so deep links survive a docs migration.

diff-friendly

Email previews

Strip MD for email preview / snippet text. No server roundtrip — perfect for proprietary content you can't paste into a public tool. The full marked + GFM bundle ships with the page, so it works offline once loaded.

render-stable

Reading time

Pair with the reading-time calculator for accuracy. Front matter (YAML / TOML / JSON) passes through unchanged so static-site pipelines (Jekyll, Hugo, Astro, Eleventy) read it correctly. Pair with the Front-Matter Validator to catch syntax errors before deploy.

cross-platform

Accessibility

Some screen readers prefer plain text. Output is reproducible: identical input always produces identical Markdown, so doc-generation scripts can rely on it for snapshot tests and embedded into release workflows.

a11y
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

All Markdown syntax: headings, bold, italic, links (text kept, URL removed), images, lists, code, blockquotes, horizontal rules, HTML tags.
Letters, digits, spaces, punctuation — everything between the syntax markers.
The pipes are kept (basic regex). For complex tables use the HTML Table to Markdown / dedicated converters.
Code fences first (so inline syntax inside them doesn't trigger), then inline / structural markers.
No. Stripping runs in your browser.
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