Paste Markdown above and get clean HTML instantly. Headings, bold/italic, links, lists, blockquotes, inline code, and code blocks are all supported.
# Hello
**bold** → <h1>Hello</h1>
<p><strong>bold</strong></p>
Markdown is the most widely-used lightweight markup language — used on GitHub, Reddit, Discord, Notion, Slack, every blog platform from Ghost to Hashnode, and almost all README files. It is plain text with simple symbols (**bold**, # Heading, [link](url)) that map to HTML structure.
This converter handles the standard CommonMark elements: headings (1–6), bold, italic, inline code, code blocks, links, images, ordered and unordered lists, blockquotes, and horizontal rules. Output is clean, semantic HTML you can paste directly into any CMS, blog editor, or HTML email.
The converter implements the CommonMark specification (see spec 0.31.1) for parsing Markdown. It tokenizes the input using a state machine that identifies block-level elements (headings, code fences, block quotes, lists) and inline spans (bold, italic, links, images, code). Each token is mapped to the corresponding HTML element: # becomes <h1>, **bold** becomes <strong>. The tool handles UTF-8 encoded text, preserving non-ASCII characters. It also supports HTML entity encoding inside code spans to prevent injection. The output is a well-formed HTML fragment (no <!DOCTYPE>), with proper nesting and escape handling for raw HTML and special characters like <, >, &.
Compare this online Markdown-to-HTML converter with common alternatives.
| This tool | GitHub Markdown Preview | Pandoc CLI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Instant client-side conversion | Requires browser refresh | Command-line latency |
| Customization | Single output format (HTML) | Only GitHub Flavored Markdown | Supports many output formats, customizable templates |
| Offline use | Web-based, needs internet | Needs GitHub repo | Command-line tool works fully offline |
| Code safety | Escapes HTML in code blocks | Preserves safe HTML | Raw HTML passthrough unless filtered |
Markdown was invented by John Gruber (with contributions from Aaron Swartz) in 2004 as a lightweight markup language that is easy to read and write in plain text. The primary inspiration came from existing conventions in email formatting for plain-text markup. Gruber released a Perl-based reference implementation. Over time, many dialects emerged (GitHub Flavored Markdown, MultiMarkdown, etc.). In 2014, the CommonMark project was launched to standardize Markdown, leading to a formal specification and test suite. Today, Markdown is ubiquitous in software development, blogging, and documentation tools.
Wrote your project README in Markdown? Paste it here, copy the HTML, and drop it into your CMS. Instant content reuse.
Moving from Notion / Ghost / Hashnode (Markdown) to WordPress / Squarespace (HTML)? Convert post bodies in batch — the tool handles posts up to ~100KB without slowdown.
Write your email in Markdown (faster), then convert to HTML for the email client. The output is plain, accessible HTML that renders consistently.
Internal wiki pages stored as Markdown can be exported to a public HTML site. Convert here and copy.
Show students or new contributors the exact HTML their Markdown produces — a powerful aid to understanding the relationship between the two formats.
Not yet — table support requires a more sophisticated parser. For Markdown tables, use a CommonMark or GitHub Flavored Markdown processor (most CMSes ship with one). Everything else (headings, lists, links, code, blockquotes, images) is supported here.
Yes — output uses standard HTML5 tags. The tool also escapes any raw <, >, and & in your input so nothing is interpreted as HTML when you didn't intend it.
It escapes inline HTML rather than passing it through. If you write <br> in your Markdown, the converter will output <br> as visible text. Most users want this safer behavior; advanced users should use a full Markdown processor.