A lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004. It uses simple characters (#, *, -, []) to indicate formatting and converts to valid HTML. It is the de facto standard on GitHub, Notion, Slack and many blogs.

Does my text get sent to a server?

No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript. Your content never leaves your device. You can disconnect from the internet and it still works.

Does it support GitHub Flavored Markdown?

It supports the most common elements: headings, lists, emphasis, code, links and images. For tables, task lists and other GFM extras, use a full parser like marked.

Markdown to HTML — Free Converter

What Markdown is and why it became universal

John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 with one idea: that plain text should be readable as-is and at the same time convertible to structured HTML. Twenty years later it's the dominant format for GitHub READMEs, Notion docs, Slack posts, Discord messages, and most static site generators. If you write technical content, you already know its rules.

Basic syntax this converter handles

Headings: # through ###### for H1 to H6.
Emphasis: **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~.
Lists: - item or 1. item for ordered.
Links: [text](url).
Images: ![alt](url).
Code: `inline` or triple backticks for fenced blocks.
Quotes: > quote.
Horizontal rules: three hyphens (---).

Why convert in the browser

Most online converters upload your text to a server. For a public README that's fine, but if you're processing a confidential draft, internal notes, or a legal document, you don't want your content passing through machines you don't control. This converter runs 100% in local JavaScript: the text never leaves your tab.

When to use Markdown and when not

Markdown shines for linear content: blog posts, docs, chat messages, READMEs, issues. It falls short when you need complex layouts (multi-column, absolute positioning, animations) or specific HTML attributes (data-attributes, aria-labels). For those cases, plain HTML or MDX (Markdown + JSX) is the better tool.

Variants in the wild

CommonMark: the effort to standardize original Markdown. It pins down ambiguities in Gruber's spec.
GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM): adds tables, task lists, autolinks, user mentions.
MDX: lets you embed JSX components inside Markdown. Used by Docusaurus, Astro, Next.
Obsidian / Notion: their own dialects with backlinks, embeds, databases.

Productivity tips

Learn the 5 most common shortcuts (#, **, -, [], `) and you'll write faster in every modern tool.
Use a live-preview editor (Typora, Obsidian, VS Code with Markdown Preview Enhanced).
For tables, use a dedicated generator — writing them by hand in Markdown is painful.
If you're publishing the HTML output, sanitize it when the input comes from external users.

Markdown to HTML