Does the URL fetch work with any website?

It works with most public pages that have clear editorial structure, like blog posts and articles. Pages behind a login, paywall, or aggressive anti-scraping protection can't be fetched.

What is GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)?

GFM is the extension GitHub and GitLab use on top of standard Markdown, adding pipe tables, strikethrough (`~~text~~`), task lists, and autolinks. Enable it in the options panel if your target platform supports those features.

Is my HTML uploaded to a server?

No. Turndown runs 100% in your browser. The URL fetch feature uses a client-side CORS proxy just to retrieve the remote page — HTML you paste in manually is never transmitted anywhere.

What's the difference between ATX and Setext heading style?

ATX uses hash symbols (`# Heading`) and works for all six heading levels. Setext uses underline characters and only supports h1 and h2. ATX is the safer default for maximum compatibility across Markdown renderers.

Can I use this to convert web pages for RAG or LLM prompts?

Yes. Fetch the page, keep GFM off if your pipeline doesn't need tables, and the result is clean, low-token Markdown with the heading structure intact — a better input for embeddings and prompts than raw HTML with scripts, ads, and navigation markup mixed in.

HTML to Markdown Converter

Free HTML to Markdown converter with live preview and URL fetch. GitHub Flavored Markdown, configurable headings, bullets. 100% browser, no signup.

Updated May 2026

HTML to MD MD to HTML

Source HTML

Options

Heading Style

Bullet Style

Code Block Style

GFM Support Sanitize HTML Br-style Breaks

Live Conversion

Output updates as you type. Runs entirely in your browser.

Need the reverse? Markdown to HTML →

How to convert HTML to Markdown

Paste HTML, or fetch it straight from a URL

1. Paste HTML or a URL

Paste an HTML snippet, or drop a public URL and click "Fetch & Convert" to pull the page content automatically.

2. Adjust the options

Pick a heading style (ATX or Setext), a bullet marker, and toggle GitHub Flavored Markdown and HTML sanitizing.

3. Copy or download

"Copy MD" copies the Markdown to your clipboard, or download a ready-to-use `.md` file for your editor.

What this HTML to Markdown converter does

Fetch from URL

Pulls a public page, strips navigation and ads, and converts only the main article content — no manual copy-paste from DevTools.

GitHub Flavored Markdown

Converts tables, strikethrough, task lists, and autolinks correctly when GFM is enabled.

Live preview

The Markdown output updates on every keystroke, with a rendered preview alongside the raw text — no separate convert button to click.

Configurable heading and list style

Choose ATX (#) or Setext underline headings, and pick *, -, or + as the bullet marker.

HTML sanitizing

Optionally strip scripts and unsafe markup before conversion, so pasted or fetched HTML can't inject anything into the output.

Conversion examples

What HTML tags look like once converted

HTML

Markdown

`<h1>Introduction</h1>`

`# Introduction`

`<strong>bold text</strong>`

`**bold text**`

`<ul><li>Apples</li></ul>`

`* Apples`

`<p style="color:red"><strong>Warning</strong></p>`

`**Warning**` — inline styling is dropped

When you'll reach for this converter

The most common scenarios people use it for

Migrating a blog to a static site generator

Export HTML from WordPress or a legacy CMS and get clean .md files ready for Hugo, Astro, or Jekyll.

Saving articles to Obsidian or a notes vault

Use the URL fetch to convert any article and paste the result straight into your Obsidian or Logseq vault.

Cleaning up WYSIWYG editor output

TipTap, Quill, and Froala all generate HTML — convert it before saving if your backend or CMS stores content as Markdown.

Turning HTML emails into documentation

Paste an email body and get clean Markdown for internal docs, changelogs, or a Confluence page.

Prepping clean content for LLM prompts or RAG pipelines

Markdown strips boilerplate and preserves heading structure, which means fewer tokens and better retrieval accuracy than feeding raw HTML to a model.

Something not converting right? Start here

Fetch fails on paywalled or login-gated pages

URL fetch only works on public pages — content behind authentication or a paywall can't be retrieved.

Tables not converting without GFM enabled

Without GitHub Flavored Markdown turned on, HTML tables won't be converted to pipe-table syntax — they'll fall back to plain text.

Expecting CSS styling to carry over

Markdown only supports structural formatting — bold, headings, lists, links. Colors, fonts, and inline styles are intentionally dropped.

Why use this HTML to Markdown converter

The URL fetch is the real differentiator: it pulls a public page, automatically strips navigation and ads, and converts only the main content — no more manually copying raw HTML out of DevTools.

It runs on Turndown.js entirely in your browser. No HTML you paste is ever sent to a server — the URL fetch uses a client-side CORS proxy just to retrieve the page, but locally pasted HTML never leaves your machine.

Frequently asked questions

It's a tool that turns HTML markup (<h1>, <strong>, <ul>) into equivalent Markdown syntax (#, **, -). It's useful for migrating content between platforms, cleaning up output from WYSIWYG editors, and saving web pages into Markdown-based note apps.

Resources

Turndown — GitHub

The JavaScript library that powers this converter.

CommonMark Specification

The official specification behind standard Markdown syntax.

GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec

The official GFM documentation, including tables and task lists.