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How do I strip HTML tags to get plain text?

Short answer

Paste HTML into a browser-based HTML to text tool and it removes the tags and returns just the readable text content. The extraction runs on your device, which is the fast way to pull clean text out of a web page, an email template or a CMS field without the markup coming along.

When you want the words, not the markup

Copying from a rendered page often drags along hidden formatting, and copying from source gives you a mess of tags. An HTML to text tool parses the markup and keeps only the text nodes, so you get the plain words with the tags, attributes and scripts removed. That is what you need when feeding text into a plain-text field, a word counter, a translator or an analysis script.

Stripping is not the same as sanitizing

Removing tags to display or store plain text is a formatting operation, and it is genuinely useful for cleaning up pasted content. It is worth being clear that this is different from security sanitization, where you deliberately allow some safe HTML while neutralizing scripts. For plain-text extraction the tool does exactly one job, and because it runs client-side your content is never uploaded.

Step by step

  1. Paste the HTML. Paste the HTML source into the tool.
  2. Extract locally. The tool strips the tags and keeps the text in your browser.
  3. Copy the plain text. Copy the clean text for use anywhere plain text is wanted.

Frequently asked questions

Does it keep any formatting?

No. It returns the plain text content with tags and attributes removed. For readable line breaks, block elements are separated.

Is the HTML uploaded?

No. The extraction runs entirely in your browser.

Is this a security sanitizer?

No. It extracts plain text. Security sanitization, which keeps safe HTML while removing scripts, is a different task.

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