How do I convert HTML to plain text?

Paste the HTML or open an .html file. The plain text appears instantly: tags are removed, entities like & are decoded, and paragraphs, headings and list items stay on their own lines.

Are scripts and styles included in the text?

No. The content of , , and elements and of hidden elements is skipped, because it isn't visible text.

Can I keep the links?

Yes. Enable Include link URLs and each link is written as its text followed by the address in brackets, which is handy for plain-text emails.

What happens to tables and lists?

List items become lines starting with “- ” (or numbers for ordered lists), and table cells are separated by tabs, so tables can be pasted into a spreadsheet.

HTML to Text Converter

Strip the tags from HTML and keep clean, readable plain text.

Preserve line breaksRemove extra whitespaceKeep link textInclude link URLs

HTML

<article>
  <h1>Release notes</h1>
  <p>Version <strong>2.4</strong> is out! Read the <a href="https://example.com/blog">full announcement</a>.</p>
  <h2>What's new</h2>
  <ul>
    <li>Dark mode for all pages</li>
    <li>Faster search &amp; filters</li>
  </ul>
  <p>Questions?<br>Email us at support@example.com.</p>
  <script>trackPageView();</script>
</article>

Plain text

28 words · 172 characters

Release notes

Version 2.4 is out! Read the full announcement.

What's new

- Dark mode for all pages
- Faster search & filters

Questions?
Email us at support@example.com.

How to convert HTML to text

Paste HTML on the left, or open or drop an .html file.
The plain text appears on the right straight away, with a word and character count.
Adjust the options — keep or flatten line breaks, keep link text, add link URLs.
Copy the text or Download TXT.

Extract readable text from HTML

Stripping tags with a quick search-and-replace leaves you with entities like &, script code and words glued together where paragraphs used to be. This HTML to text converter reads the HTML like a browser does: it decodes entities, skips scripts, styles and hidden elements, and keeps the document's structure as line breaks — headings and paragraphs separated by blank lines, list items prefixed with dashes or numbers, table cells separated by tabs.

Parsing happens locally in your browser in an inert document, so no scripts run and no images or trackers load, even from untrusted HTML.

Use cases

Create the plain-text version of an HTML email.
Extract article text from a saved web page for notes, quotes or translation.
Clean text before pasting it into AI tools, spreadsheets or word counters.
Get the readable content of CMS exports and HTML reports.

Related tools

Going the other way? The text to HTML converter turns plain text into paragraphs and links. To see the HTML rendered first, open it in the HTML viewer, and to keep working on the extracted text, paste it into the online notepad. Converting a Word file? Use Word to HTML.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert HTML to plain text?: Paste the HTML or open an .html file. The plain text appears instantly: tags are removed, entities like & are decoded, and paragraphs, headings and list items stay on their own lines.
Are scripts and styles included in the text?: No. The content of <script>, <style>, <noscript> and <template> elements and of hidden elements is skipped, because it isn't visible text.
Can I keep the links?: Yes. Enable Include link URLs and each link is written as its text followed by the address in brackets, which is handy for plain-text emails.
What happens to tables and lists?: List items become lines starting with “- ” (or numbers for ordered lists), and table cells are separated by tabs, so tables can be pasted into a spreadsheet.