Convert HTML Email to Plain Text or Markdown
- HTML emails contain formatting markup that becomes noise in plain text contexts
- Converting to Markdown preserves structure like headings, bold, and links
- Useful for archiving emails, pasting into notes, or processing email content
- Paste the email HTML into the converter — plain text or Markdown output in seconds
Table of Contents
HTML emails are formatted for display in an email client. When you need to work with the content — save it to notes, archive it, copy it into a document, or process it — the HTML markup becomes noise. Angle brackets, style attributes, and table layouts that make the email look good in Gmail make a mess everywhere else.
Converting to plain text or Markdown extracts the content with structure intact and markup gone.
When Would You Convert an HTML Email?
- Archiving in a note app — Saving important emails (confirmations, receipts, project updates) to Obsidian, Notion, or Roam. HTML paste does not work in these tools; Markdown does.
- Quoting in a document — Copying email content into a Word doc or Google Doc. Pasting HTML produces either raw tags or inconsistent formatting depending on the app.
- Plain text email responses — Some workflows or clients prefer plain text replies. Converting an HTML thread to plain text first lets you strip the visual noise before responding.
- Processing email content with scripts or AI — If you are feeding email content to an AI tool or script, clean Markdown is much better input than raw HTML with styles, scripts, and table layouts embedded.
- Printing — Plain text or simple Markdown is often more printable than the full HTML email layout.
How to Get the HTML Source of an Email
Different email clients expose the HTML differently:
Gmail — Open the email. Click the three-dot menu (More) → "Show original." The full message source opens. Find the HTML section (search for <body>) and copy the HTML content block.
Outlook (desktop) — Open the email. File → Properties → The Internet Headers field shows the raw email. For the HTML body specifically, you may need to forward the email as attachment, then open the .eml file in a text editor.
Outlook (web) — Click the three-dot menu → View → View message source. Copy the HTML body content.
Apple Mail — View → Message → Raw Source. The HTML is embedded in the multipart email format; find the section between <html> and </html>.
An easier method for any client: forward the email to yourself, open it in a browser-based client (Gmail, Outlook Web), and use Inspect Element to copy the email body HTML.
Sell Custom Apparel — We Handle Printing & Free ShippingHow to Convert Email HTML to Markdown
- Copy the HTML from the email source (body content, not the full raw message with headers).
- Paste into the converter input area.
- Click "Convert to Markdown."
- Review the output. Marketing emails often have table-heavy layouts that may not convert perfectly — focus on the text content sections. Transactional emails (receipts, confirmations) usually have cleaner HTML and convert well.
- Copy the Markdown or download as .md.
The converter strips style attributes, class names, and inline CSS. Script tags are removed. What remains is the content structure — headings, paragraphs, bold text, links, and lists.
What Email Content Converts Well (and What Doesn't)
Converts well:
- Transactional emails: order confirmations, shipping notices, receipts — typically have clean HTML with defined headings and paragraphs
- Newsletter text content: article headlines, summaries, body text in paragraphs
- Plain-text-style HTML emails: some senders use minimal HTML that converts very cleanly
Converts less cleanly:
- Heavy marketing emails built on tables — the table-based layout produces fragmented Markdown with content in unexpected places
- Image-heavy emails — images convert to Markdown image syntax, but the images themselves are hosted at the sender's URL (may expire)
- Multi-column layouts — these are usually table-based and produce confusing Markdown structure
For marketing emails, focus on copying just the article or text section of the email rather than the full HTML. This gives a much cleaner conversion result.
Other Ways to Get Plain Text from HTML Email
If you frequently need plain text from emails, a few workflows:
- Gmail "Reply in plain text" — When replying, click the three-dot menu in the compose window → "Plain text mode." This strips the HTML from the reply, though not the original email body.
- Outlook: always reply in plain text — File → Options → Mail → "Reply/forward in plain text." Applies globally.
- Copy-paste stripping — Paste HTML email content into a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit in plain text mode). This strips formatting but also loses all structure (headings, bold) — worse than converting to Markdown.
For one-off conversions: the browser tool is the fastest route. For frequent conversion: consider a script that processes .eml files using a library that handles the MIME structure and HTML extraction.
Convert HTML Email to Plain Text
Paste the email HTML. Get clean Markdown. Free, no signup, instant.
Open Free HTML to Markdown ConverterFrequently Asked Questions
How do I convert an HTML email to plain text?
Get the email HTML source (from Gmail: More → Show original; look for the <body> section). Paste into the HTML to Markdown converter. The output is clean Markdown/plain text.
Can I strip HTML formatting from email in Gmail?
Gmail does not have a built-in HTML strip for email body content. Use the Show Original feature to get the raw HTML, then convert it with the browser tool.
Will the converter handle table-heavy marketing emails?
Partially. Table-based layouts produce fragmented output. For best results, copy only the article or text content section of the email, not the full HTML.
Can I convert email HTML to Markdown for use in Obsidian or Notion?
Yes. Convert the email HTML to Markdown, then paste the output into your Obsidian note or Notion page. Both apps render Markdown paste correctly.
