HTML to Markdown Converter

This tool reverses the usual flow: paste rendered HTML (from a webpage, an email, an RSS export, or a CMS), and get back clean Markdown ready for a Markdown-based system. Inline styles, classes, and most non-content attributes are stripped automatically.

Useful when migrating content out of a WYSIWYG-only CMS (Wix, Squarespace, older WordPress) into a Markdown-first system (Notion, Obsidian, Hugo, GitHub Pages). The output is conservative — when in doubt, the tool drops formatting rather than guessing.

How the encoding works

The converter parses the input HTML using a DOM parser (typically the browser's built-in DOMParser or a pure JavaScript implementation). It traverses the resulting node tree recursively, mapping each HTML element to its Markdown equivalent. Block-level elements like <h1> become # headings, <p> becomes plain text with double newlines, and <strong> becomes **bold**. Inline styles, class attributes, and non-semantic elements (e.g., <span>) are stripped unless they carry semantic meaning (like <em>). The algorithm follows a predefined rule set that covers HTML5 tags and common edge cases: nested lists, blockquotes, code blocks, and images. Attributes like href and src are extracted to form Markdown links and images. Self-closing tags like <br> are converted to two trailing spaces for a line break. The output is assembled by concatenating the Markdown fragments with appropriate whitespace handling to ensure valid Markdown structure.

How to use this encoder

1. Paste your HTML source into the input textarea.
2. Click the 'Convert to Markdown' button.
3. Review the generated Markdown in the output area (it updates instantly).
4. Copy the Markdown and paste it into your target system (Notion, Obsidian, GitHub, etc.).

Edge cases worth knowing

Nested lists

Converts properly by preserving indentation and list markers.

Self-closing tags

Properly handles
,

---

, and maps to Markdown syntax.

Inline CSS and classes

Stripped automatically; only semantic HTML elements affect output.

Unknown or deprecated tags

Treated as inline elements and their content is preserved as plain text.

Encoding pro tips

• For tables, ensure your HTML uses proper structure; the converter supports simple tables with Markdown pipe syntax.
  If your HTML contains code snippets wrapped in

  , the output will use fenced code blocks with language auto-detection if a class like 'language-js' is present.

  Use the 'Copy to clipboard' button after conversion to quickly paste into your Markdown editor.
  For migrated content from WYSIWYG editors, run a second pass to clean up any leftover inline styles or empty tags.

  vs other encoders

  Below is a comparison with two common alternatives for converting HTML to Markdown.

  	This tool	Pandoc CLI	Manual Find/Replace
  Setup	No installation, runs in browser	Requires installing Pandoc (Haskell dependency)	No software, but extremely tedious for large documents
  Accuracy	Handles most HTML5 tags, semantics, and common edge cases	Extremely accurate, supports many input/output formats, but can be overkill	Highly error-prone on nested structures and attributes
  Speed	Instant for typical documents	Fast on command line, but overhead of starting the tool	Slow for anything beyond trivial changes

  A bit of history

  Markdown was created by John Gruber in 2004 as a lightweight markup language for easy reading and writing of plain text. HTML, the predecessor, has been the standard for web content since the early 1990s. The need to convert between the two arose as static site generators, note-taking apps, and documentation platforms adopted Markdown. This tool implements the conversion logic inspired by Gruber's original Perl script and later enhanced by community-driven specifications like CommonMark.

  When to use this encoding

  Migrating from a WYSIWYG CMS to Notion or Obsidian

  Copy the rendered HTML from a Wix / Squarespace / old WordPress post, paste it here, and the Markdown output is ready to drop into Notion or Obsidian without manual cleanup.

  Building a static site from existing pages

  Hugo, Jekyll, and Eleventy all run on Markdown content. Convert your existing site's HTML pages to Markdown for faster rebuilds.

  Cleaning up email exports

  Email clients export messy HTML with inline styles and conditional tags. Convert to Markdown to get just the content.

  Capturing web pages for note-taking

  Reader-mode HTML from articles, when converted to Markdown, becomes a clean reading file for Obsidian or your knowledge base.

  Documentation porting

  Internal docs in a corporate wiki (Confluence) → Markdown for migrating to GitBook, ReadMe, or a docs-as-code system.

  Encoding FAQ

  Will it handle nested lists?

  Single-level lists work cleanly. Nested lists may flatten to a single level. For documents with deeply nested structures, use Turndown as a more sophisticated alternative.

  What about classes and styles?

  All inline style= and class= attributes are stripped — they have no Markdown equivalent. If your content depends on styling (specific font sizes, colors), you'll need to add it back in your destination system.

  Does it handle tables?

  Not yet. Tables are converted to plain text. For HTML tables, manually rebuild them in your destination system using its table syntax.