Convert text to plain text
Paste text from a document, a web page, or an AI chat. Formatting, Markdown symbols, smart quotes, and hidden characters are removed, and em dashes are replaced. Nothing is uploaded.
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How the plain text converter works
A text box holds plain text only, so pasting here already drops bold, italics, links, fonts, and colors. The converter then cleans up the characters that remain.
Strip Markdown removes heading marks, bold and italic markers, strikethrough, bullets, numbers in numbered lists, and quote marks at the start of a line. A Markdown link becomes its label followed by the address in brackets.
Smart quotes become straight quotes, and the ellipsis character becomes three dots. Hidden characters such as zero-width spaces, soft hyphens, and directional marks are removed. Non-breaking and other unusual spaces become normal spaces. Trailing spaces and repeated blank lines are removed.
These rules are shared with the AI Text Cleaner, which can also highlight hidden characters before removing them. To join wrapped lines into paragraphs, use Remove Line Breaks.
How to remove em dashes
Pick what each em dash becomes. Spaces around the dash are replaced too.
- A comma: The results were clear, sales doubled.
- A hyphen with spaces: The results were clear - sales doubled.
- A hyphen with no spaces: The results were clear-sales doubled.
A comma reads best in most sentences, but check each one. A pair of em dashes around an aside becomes a pair of commas. An em dash at the start or end of a line has nothing to join, so a comma is dropped there.
En dashes, as in 1990–2000, become plain hyphens unless you keep em dashes.
Frequently asked questions
What is plain text?
Plain text is text with no formatting, such as bold, links, fonts, or Markdown symbols. It uses ordinary characters, so it pastes cleanly into forms, code, email, and other apps.
How do I remove em dashes from text?
Paste the text and pick what each em dash becomes. A comma reads naturally in most sentences, as in The results were clear, sales doubled. You can also pick a hyphen with spaces, a plain hyphen, or keep the em dashes.
Does this remove bold, italics, and links?
Yes. Pasting into the text box drops rich formatting such as bold, italics, fonts, and colors. Strip Markdown also removes Markdown symbols such as asterisks, heading marks, and bullets, and turns a Markdown link into its label and address.
How is this different from the AI Text Cleaner?
Both use the same cleaning rules. The plain text converter turns on Markdown stripping and em dash replacement by default. The AI Text Cleaner leaves those off and can highlight hidden characters before removing them.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The plain text converter runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.