HTML tag stripper
Paste HTML source and get the readable text. Block tags such as paragraphs, headings and list items become line breaks, scripts and styles disappear with their content, and entities are turned into characters.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Paste HTML into the box. The text appears on the right.
- Keep line breaks on to keep the shape of paragraphs and lists, or turn it off for a single line.
- Turn off entity decoding if you want to see & and friends as written.
- Copy the plain text.
How it works
The input is scanned for “<”. A tag is read up to its closing “>” (a “>” inside a quoted attribute does not count) and is dropped; the line break rules decide whether it leaves one behind. A “<” that is not followed by a tag name, as in “1 < 2”, is kept as text. Whitespace runs are collapsed to one space, the way HTML shows them.
Worked example
<p>One</p><p>Two & three</p> becomes two lines separated by a blank line: “One” and “Two & three”. Line<br>break<script>alert(1)</script> done becomes “Line”, then “break done”.
Tips
Check the result if the HTML is broken, for example a tag with no closing “>”: the rest of the line is kept as text. For code you will run, strip tags with a proper HTML parser instead.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to script and style blocks?
They are removed together with everything inside them, because their content is code, not text for the reader. HTML comments and the doctype line are removed as well.
Which tags make a line break?
With line breaks on, br, div, li, tr and table cells give a new line; p, headings, lists, tables, blockquote, pre and sections give a blank line. Inline tags such as b, a and span just disappear. With the option off, the text becomes one line.
Which entities are decoded?
Numeric ones (A and A) and a list of common named ones such as &, <, >, ", (becomes a normal space), © and —. An entity not in the list stays as written.
Does it render the page like a browser?
No. It reads the tags with a small tokenizer and does not run any code or load anything. Text inside pre is not kept as typed, and hidden elements (display none) are not detected.