HTML to Markdown Converter

Overview

Convert HTML to Markdown — privately

HTML to Markdown converts HTML into clean Markdown by mapping each element to its Markdown equivalent — headings to #, <strong> to **, <a> to <a href="url">text</a>, lists, blockquotes, code, and tables. This one runs entirely in your browser, so your HTML is never uploaded.

Migrating content from a CMS, a rich-text editor, or a web page into Markdown by hand is tedious. This converter does it for you: it reads your HTML and emits clean Markdown, mapping each element to the right syntax — headings become # through ######, <strong>/<b> become bold, <em>/<i> become *italic*, <a> becomes <a href="url">text</a>, <img> becomes !<a href="src">alt</a>, lists become -/1., <blockquote> becomes >, code becomes inline or fenced, and tables become GitHub-Flavored Markdown tables.

Paste your HTML or load a local file, set the options (ATX # or setext headings, -, * or + bullets, and whether to keep or strip the elements Markdown has no syntax for), and the result appears as you type. Three views share the pane: the Markdown, the plain text with every marker removed, and a report of what the conversion could not carry across. Copy or download whichever one you need.

The HTML to Markdown converter in dark mode: a release-notes document in the cyan editor pane on the left with a line-number gutter and syntax colouring, and the magenta pane on the right showing the Markdown — a hash-one heading, a five-hash heading for the h5, bold as double asterisks, a two-space-indented nested list and a pipe-separated table row containing an inline code span and a link — One stage, two panes. The h5 becomes `#####` rather than plain text, and the arithmetic in “2 * 3” is left unescaped because a star with a space on each side cannot open emphasis

Privacy is the point. Everything runs in your browser — no server, no upload, no logging, no tracking. Content teams paste draft articles, internal docs, and email HTML; here none of it leaves your device, and the tool works offline once loaded.

The honest part matters: Markdown is intentionally simpler than HTML, so the conversion is not a lossless round-trip. HTML can express layout and styling that Markdown has no syntax for — <div>/<span> wrappers, inline CSS, classes, and complex positioning are simplified or dropped. Complex tables (merged or nested cells) don't map to GFM tables and will be simplified. And the cleaner your input HTML, the cleaner the Markdown — messy markup produces messier output. For anything Markdown can't represent, you can keep it as inline HTML (Markdown allows raw HTML) or strip it.

For the reverse, see Markdown to HTML; to tidy the HTML first, the HTML Formatter.

Use cases

When HTML to Markdown helps

The converter showing a three-level nested list and a two-column table: the Markdown pane indents Staging, eu-west and replica by two spaces per level, and the table rows keep the bold run in the Region cell and the link in the Status cell as Markdown rather than flattening them to plain text — Three levels of list keep their depth, and a table cell keeps the bold run and the link that were inside it

Content migration. Move CMS or blog posts into Markdown.
Docs. Convert HTML docs to Markdown for a static site or repo.
Notes. Turn a web page or email into Markdown notes.
README. Get GitHub-friendly Markdown from HTML.
Sensitive drafts. Convert internal content without uploading it.

Guide

How to convert HTML to Markdown

Paste or load your HTML

Type it, paste it, or open a local file (read in-browser, not uploaded).

Set your options

Heading style, bullet marker, and whether to keep or strip the elements Markdown has no syntax for.

Convert

The tool maps elements to Markdown, including GFM tables.

Switch views

Markdown, plain text, or the report of what could not survive the conversion.

Copy or download

Grab the Markdown. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Realistic example

<h1>Title</h1><p>Some <strong>bold</strong> text and a <a href="/x">link</a>.</p> becomes # Title then Some bold text and a link.

Advanced tip

For content headed to GitHub or a static-site generator, leave headings on ATX (#). Setext underlines only reach h1 and h2, so a document with an h3 in it ends up using both styles at once.

Common mistake to avoid

Don't expect pixel-perfect fidelity — Markdown drops styling and complex layout by design. Keep the original HTML if you need it.

To go back, use Markdown to HTML.

Good to know

What to keep in mind

Zero-knowledge and private. Conversion runs in your browser — nothing uploaded, logged, or tracked, and it works offline.
Markdown is simpler than HTML. Not a lossless round-trip — <div>/<span>, inline CSS, classes, and complex layout are simplified or dropped.
Tables are GFM. Simple tables convert; merged/nested-cell tables don't translate cleanly.
Output tracks input quality. Clean HTML gives clean Markdown; messy HTML gives messier Markdown.
Unsupported elements. Keep them as inline HTML (Markdown allows it) or strip them, your choice.

Reference

What Markdown cannot hold

The Report view of the converter: a two-column table listing elements read 27, headings 2, links 1, images 0, tables 1, code blocks 0, input 668 bytes and Markdown 329 bytes, with a highlighted row reading script times one, dropped — not content — The Report names what the conversion could not carry, element by element, instead of leaving it to be found later

Markdown was designed to stay readable as plain text, so it has no syntax for most of what HTML can say. The conversion is one-way and lossy by design. The status line under the panes counts what was lost, and the Report view names it element by element, so you find out here rather than three commits later.

Merged cells

A GitHub-Flavored Markdown table is a header row, an alignment row and body rows. There is no colspan, no rowspan, and no way to put a list or a second paragraph inside a cell. When a table uses any of those, the converter leaves it as HTML rather than printing a grid whose columns no longer line up. Most Markdown renderers pass raw HTML straight through, so the table still renders — it just stops being Markdown.

Elements with no equivalent

<sup>, <sub>, <mark>, <kbd>, <abbr> and <ins> have no Markdown spelling, and neither do the media elements — <iframe>, <video>, <audio>, <svg>. Keep HTML passes them through unchanged; Strip removes the tag and keeps the text inside it. Which you want depends on where the file is going: keep it for a repository README that GitHub renders, strip it for a pipeline that sanitises HTML out again.

Styling and layout

Classes, IDs, inline style and the wrappers that carry them — <div>, <span>, <section> — are dropped and their content kept. Two columns become one. A pull quote becomes a blockquote. This is the part that surprises people moving a marketing page rather than an article, and it is worth running the page through the HTML Formatter first to see how much of it is structure and how much is presentation.

Scripts and stylesheets

<script> and <style> are removed rather than converted. Their contents are code, not prose, and a walker that treats every unknown element as a wrapper will print them into the document as text — which is what happens when you paste a saved web page into a converter that does not check.

Escapes you did not write

A paragraph containing *stars* or _underscores_ would turn into emphasis once it is Markdown, so those characters come back with a backslash in front of them. Characters that could not open emphasis are left alone: the * in 2 * 3 has whitespace on both sides, and the _ in snake_case sits between two word characters, and neither can start a run. The same applies to a # at the start of a line and a | inside a table cell.

Support

Frequently Asked Questions

The converter on a 390-pixel phone: the Markdown, Plain text and Report buttons across the top, the option groups in one horizontally scrollable row beside the fullscreen button, a two-button tab strip reading Your HTML and Markdown, and the converted Markdown filling the width — On a phone the two panes become a tab strip and the option groups become one scrollable row

How do I convert HTML to Markdown?

Paste your HTML (or load a local file), set your options, and the tool walks the HTML and emits the matching Markdown — headings, bold/italic, links, images, lists, blockquotes, code, and tables. Three views share the result pane: the Markdown itself, the plain text with every marker removed, and a report of anything Markdown could not hold. Copy or download whichever one you need. Everything happens in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Does this upload my HTML, and does it work offline?

No upload, and yes it works offline. All conversion happens in your browser using JavaScript — there's no server receiving your content, no logging, and no tracking. That matters for draft articles and internal docs. Once the page has loaded it keeps working with no internet connection, which you can confirm in your browser's network tab.

Which HTML elements convert to Markdown?

The common ones map directly: <h1>–<h6> to #–######, <strong>/<b> to bold, <em>/<i> to *italic*, <a> to <a href="url">text</a>, <img> to !<a href="src">alt</a>, <ul>/<ol>/<li> to bullet or numbered lists, <blockquote> to >, <code>/<pre> to inline or fenced code, and <hr> to a rule. Tables map to GitHub-Flavored Markdown tables. Elements without a Markdown equivalent are kept as inline HTML or stripped.

Can it convert HTML tables to Markdown?

Simple tables, yes — they convert to GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM) tables, with a header row and pipe-separated cells. However, GFM tables are basic: they can't represent merged cells (colspan/rowspan), nested tables, or block content inside cells. Those complex tables are simplified, and the result may not match the original exactly. For simple tabular data, the conversion is clean.

Is the conversion lossless?

No — and it can't be. Markdown is deliberately simpler than HTML, so anything HTML can express that Markdown can't (styling, layout, arbitrary attributes) is lost or simplified in the conversion. You'll get faithful Markdown for structural content — headings, text, links, lists, code — but not a byte-for-byte round-trip. Keep your original HTML if you need to preserve everything.

What happens to <div>, <span>, and inline CSS?

Markdown has no equivalent for layout wrappers or styling, so <div> and <span> are generally unwrapped (their text content is kept) and inline CSS, classes, and IDs are dropped. This is by design — Markdown focuses on content structure, not presentation. If a wrapper carried meaning you need, you can choose to keep unsupported HTML inline rather than strip it.

Can I choose heading style or bullet markers?

Yes. Headings can be ATX (# Title, the most common and widely supported) or setext (underlined) for h1 and h2, and the bullet marker can be -, *, or +. Code blocks are always fenced, which is the form GitHub, GitLab and every static-site generator read. Matching your target keeps the Markdown consistent with your project's conventions.

What about elements Markdown doesn't support?

You have two choices for those. Keep them as inline HTML — Markdown permits raw HTML, so the element passes through and still renders in most Markdown processors — or strip them so the output is pure Markdown. Which is better depends on your target: keep HTML for fidelity, strip it for clean, portable Markdown. The option is yours.

Can I convert a whole blog post or email?

Yes. Paste the full HTML of a blog post, documentation page, or email, and the tool converts the whole thing at once. It's a common use for migrating content into a Markdown-based CMS, static site, or repo. Just remember that styling and complex layout won't carry over — you'll get the content structure as clean Markdown.

Can I load an HTML file instead of pasting?

Yes. You can open a local .html file and the tool reads it directly in your browser with the FileReader API — the contents load into the editor without being uploaded anywhere. This is handy for larger pages or ones you'd rather not copy and paste, and it's exactly as private as pasting the markup by hand.

Can it handle large HTML?

Usually yes. Because it runs locally, the limit is your device's memory and CPU rather than a server cap, and modern browsers handle large documents well. Very large or deeply nested HTML can be slow to convert, but there's no upload size limit from us and nothing is sent anywhere — it's purely a matter of local performance.

Is it free, and are there limits?

Yes, completely free — no payment, no signup, no account, and no usage caps or watermarks. Since everything runs in your browser, there's nothing for us to meter; the only practical limit is your device's performance on very large documents. Use it as much as you like, including offline once the page has loaded.

Still have questions?

If you can't find the answer you're looking for, feel free to contact our support team.

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