Copy content from a webpage and paste it somewhere Markdown-native — a README, a note-taking app, a static site generator — and you're often left with a mess of raw HTML tags. This tool converts HTML back into clean Markdown syntax.
Going the "harder" direction
While Markdown-to-HTML conversion is a well-defined, one-way transformation (Markdown syntax maps predictably onto specific HTML elements), the reverse direction is inherently messier, because HTML can express structures and styling that Markdown's deliberately minimal syntax was never designed to represent — complex nested tables, inline styles, multiple heading levels beyond what's commonly used, or elements like <div> and <span> that carry no semantic meaning Markdown has any equivalent for. Converting HTML to Markdown therefore necessarily involves some interpretation and simplification, discarding presentational details that don't fit Markdown's plain-text-first philosophy.
How the conversion works
The tool parses your HTML's element tree and maps each recognized tag to its closest Markdown equivalent — <h1> becomes #, <strong> becomes **bold**, <a href="..."> becomes [text](url) — while elements with no direct Markdown equivalent are either simplified to their closest reasonable representation or, where necessary, preserved as raw embedded HTML, since Markdown's specification explicitly permits mixing in HTML for exactly these situations.
Where converting HTML to Markdown is genuinely useful
- Migrating content into a Markdown-based system — moving blog posts, documentation or wiki content from an HTML-based CMS into a static site generator or documentation platform that expects Markdown source files.
- Cleaning up pasted web content for notes — copying an article or reference material into a Markdown-native note-taking app (like Obsidian or many wiki tools) and wanting clean, readable source instead of a jumble of pasted HTML tags.
- Preparing content for a README or technical documentation — converting HTML documentation or specification content into Markdown for inclusion in a GitHub README or similar developer-facing document.
- Simplifying overly complex HTML into readable plain-text-adjacent content — stripping away excessive nested
<div>and inline styling from web-sourced content down to its essential structural meaning.
Frequently asked questions
Will every HTML element convert cleanly to Markdown? No — elements with no Markdown equivalent (like complex multi-column layouts, certain form elements, or heavily styled <div>-based structures) either get simplified to their closest reasonable Markdown structure or preserved as raw HTML, since forcing every possible HTML construct into pure Markdown syntax isn't always meaningfully possible.
Does converting to Markdown lose formatting like colors or custom fonts? Yes, generally — Markdown's syntax deliberately doesn't support inline styling like specific colors, fonts or font sizes, since it was designed as a plain-text-first, semantically focused format rather than a full styling language, so presentational details like these are lost in translation to Markdown by design.
Is round-tripping (HTML to Markdown, then back to HTML) always lossless? Not always perfectly — while the essential structural content (headings, lists, links, emphasis) typically survives a round trip intact, any presentational HTML details that Markdown has no equivalent for won't be recoverable after converting through Markdown and back.
Further reading
Daring Fireball — Markdown Syntax — The target format's full syntax reference, including its explicit support for embedded raw HTML.
MDN — HTML — Reference for the source HTML elements being mapped onto Markdown syntax.