How to Strip HTML Tags and Convert to Plain Text

To convert HTML to plain text, paste your markup into the tool, and it removes every tag automatically — turn on entity decoding and block line breaks to get a result that reads like the original page. The ByteTools Strip HTML Tags tool does this in one paste, and because it runs entirely in your browser, no markup is ever uploaded to a server.

This guide walks through the steps, explains the two optional passes, and shows what clean output looks like.

What the tool does

HTML wraps your readable content in tags like <p>, <strong> and <a>. When you only want the words — to reuse copy, feed a plain-text field, or paste somewhere that does not accept markup — those tags are noise. Strip HTML Tags removes every tag and leaves pure text. It also strips the contents of <script> and <style> elements, so no stray JavaScript or CSS leaks into your output, and it shows a live character count of the result.

Step-by-step

1. Paste your HTML. Drop the markup into the input box — copied web content, WYSIWYG editor output, or a raw email template all work.
2. Choose whether to decode entities. Turn this on to convert encoded sequences like &amp; and &nbsp; back into real characters.
3. Enable block line breaks if you want structure. This inserts newlines where paragraphs, headings, list items and <br> tags were, so the layout survives.
4. Copy or download the result. Grab the clean plain text for wherever you need it.

What the two options do

These optional passes are the difference between a raw dump of words and text that reads properly. Here is how each affects the output.

For most copy-reuse tasks you want both on: entities decoded so ampersands and non-breaking spaces read naturally, and block line breaks kept so headings and paragraphs do not collapse into one wall of text. Leave decoding off only when you specifically need the entities preserved as-is, for example when the escaped form is what a downstream system expects.

A quick worked example

Given markup like <h2>Menu</h2><p>Fish &amp; Chips</p><p>Pie</p>, the tool with both options on produces three tidy lines: Menu, then Fish & Chips, then Pie — the tags gone, the ampersand real, and the paragraph structure intact. Turn the options off and you get the same words run together with the raw entity. Seeing that difference is the fastest way to understand what each pass controls.

Try the Strip HTML Tags — free and 100% in your browser.

FAQ

Do I need to clean the HTML before pasting it?

No. Paste it as-is, tags and all. The tool handles messy, nested and even slightly broken markup, removing tags and leaving the text.

Will it remove JavaScript and CSS too?

Yes. The contents of <script> and <style> elements are removed along with the tags, so no code ends up in your plain-text result.

Can I keep the paragraph layout?

Yes. Enable the block line-break option and closing paragraph, heading, list and <br> tags become newlines, preserving the document's structure.

Is it safe for confidential markup?

Yes. All parsing happens locally in your browser, so internal templates and private content never leave your device.

Related free tools

• HTML Formatter — tidy and indent raw HTML.
• HTML Minifier — shrink markup for production.
• Remove Line Breaks — flatten text into a single line.
• Remove Extra Spaces — tidy up whitespace afterwards.

Built by ByteVancer

ByteTools is a free product of ByteVancer, a software and web development studio building web apps, SaaS and custom software. If clean, private tools like this help your work, explore what ByteVancer can build for your team.