How to Convert HTML to Markdown
Going from HTML to Markdown is the harder direction. Markdown maps cleanly onto HTML; HTML does not map cleanly back, because it can express things Markdown simply has no syntax for. The job is therefore one of sensible reduction — keeping the structure that matters, discarding the presentation that does not, and producing something a person would actually be happy to edit.
Paste your HTML
A full page, a fragment, or the source of something you copied. Drop an .html file if you prefer.
Choose your conventions
Which bullet character, which emphasis markers - the details that keep output consistent with your existing files.
Copy the Markdown
Take it to your clipboard or download a .md file, ready for a README or a docs folder.
Why Parsing Beats Pattern Matching
The tempting way to write this conversion is a list of regular expressions — replace <strong> with asterisks, replace <li> with a hyphen, and so on. It works on a simple example and falls apart on anything real, because HTML nests arbitrarily and a regular expression has no way to know which closing tag belongs to which opening one.
This tool hands the HTML to the browser's own parser first, then walks the resulting tree. That means a list inside a list inside a table is handled correctly and without special cases, because by the time the conversion runs the nesting is already understood. It is the same reason you should never parse HTML with regex in your own code.
Some things are deliberately dropped. Scripts, styles, inline SVG and iframes have no Markdown equivalent and would only appear as noise, so they are removed entirely. Attributes that carry presentation rather than meaning — classes, inline styles, data attributes — go the same way. What remains is the document's structure, which is exactly what Markdown is for.
Common Situations This Tool Solves
Migrating content out of a CMS
Exported HTML is verbose and full of editor artefacts. Converting to Markdown gives you something small and readable to commit to a repository.
Turning a web article into notes
Copy the source of a page, convert it, and you have plain text with the headings and links preserved but the layout stripped away.
Rewriting rich text as documentation
Content pasted out of a word processor arrives as heavy HTML. Markdown is a far better format for anything that will live in version control.
Cleaning up generated HTML
Round-tripping through Markdown is a quick way to strip presentation and leave only the structure behind.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert HTML to Markdown for free?
Paste your HTML and the Markdown appears immediately. Free, no signup, and nothing is uploaded.
Is my HTML uploaded to a server?
No. The document is parsed and converted entirely inside your browser.
Does it handle nested lists correctly?
Yes. The HTML is parsed into a proper document tree first, so nesting of any depth converts correctly.
What happens to tables?
They become Markdown tables when the option is on. Turn it off and only the cell text is kept, which suits layout tables.
Why are scripts and styles removed?
Markdown has no equivalent for them, so keeping them would only add noise. They are stripped before conversion.
Can I convert a whole web page?
Yes. Paste the page source and the head, scripts and styling are discarded, leaving the readable content.
What does Strip links do?
It keeps the link text but discards the URLs, which is useful when converting content for notes rather than publication.
Why does my output have backslashes in it?
Characters that would otherwise be read as Markdown syntax are escaped, so a literal asterisk stays a literal asterisk.
Which bullet character should I use?
Any of them work. Hyphen is the most common convention - pick whatever matches your existing files.
Can I convert Markdown back to HTML?
Yes, with our Markdown to HTML tool, which includes a live preview.
Is there a file size limit?
Files above 5 MB are rejected because parsing becomes slow in a browser.
Is this HTML to Markdown converter really free?
Completely free, with no limits, no signup and no premium wall.
Last updated: July 21, 2026 · FlipMyFormat HTML to Markdown
Written and maintained by the FlipMyFormat team