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Convert HTML to TXT - Extract Clean Plain Text

Strip away HTML code and extract the text content you actually need.

Step 1: Upload your files

You can also Drag and drop files.

Step 2: Choose format
Step 3: Convert files

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Need Just the Text?

HTML files contain valuable content buried under layers of tags, styles, and formatting code. When you need the actual words without the markup, converting to plain text is the solution.

Whether you're cleaning data for analysis, preparing content for a different system, or extracting readable text from web pages, our converter strips away the HTML and gives you clean, usable TXT files.

How to Convert HTML to TXT

  1. Upload your HTML file - Drag and drop or click to select your .html or .htm file
  2. Select TXT output - Plain text is perfect for maximum compatibility
  3. Download your text - Get clean, tag-free content ready for use

The entire process takes seconds. No software installation, no account required.

What Gets Removed

Converting HTML to TXT strips out everything except the actual text content:

  • HTML tags - All opening and closing tags like <div>, <span>, <p>
  • CSS styles - Inline styles and embedded stylesheets
  • JavaScript - Scripts and event handlers
  • HTML comments - Developer notes hidden in the code
  • Meta information - Head content, meta tags, link elements

What remains is pure text content - the words and sentences that matter. In our testing, an HTML file with heavy markup typically reduces to 10-30% of its original size as plain text.

Common Use Cases

Data Cleaning and Analysis

Web scraping and data collection often produce HTML output. Text analysis tools, machine learning models, and NLP applications need clean text without markup interference. Converting to TXT prepares your data for processing.

Content Migration

Moving content between systems often requires stripping formatting. Plain text serves as a universal intermediate format that imports cleanly into any application.

Accessibility Review

Extracting text helps evaluate how content reads without visual formatting. This perspective is valuable for accessibility testing and ensuring content makes sense to screen readers.

Email and Documentation

Some systems only accept plain text. Converting HTML documents ensures your content works in text-only environments like certain email systems or legacy applications.

When to Choose a Different Format

Plain text is the simplest option, but it's not always the best choice:

  • Need formatting preserved? - Try HTML to PDF to keep the visual layout
  • Need editable documents? - HTML to ODT maintains some structure for word processors
  • Working with tables? - Consider formats that preserve tabular data structure

TXT is ideal when you need the text itself and nothing else.

Works on Any Device

Our HTML to TXT converter runs entirely in your browser:

  • Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook
  • Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
  • iPhone, iPad, Android devices

No downloads, no plugins, no compatibility issues. If you have a web browser, you can convert HTML to plain text.

Pro Tip

Before converting HTML from web scraping, check if the content you need is in the main body or scattered across the page. Converting the entire HTML may include navigation menus, footers, and ads mixed with your target content.

Common Mistake

Expecting formatted output from plain text conversion. TXT files have no formatting capabilities - if you need bold text, headings, or structured layouts, convert to PDF or a document format instead.

Best For

Data cleaning for text analysis, content extraction for migration, preparing input for text processing tools, and creating universally compatible text versions of web content.

Not Recommended

Don't use TXT if you need to preserve any visual formatting, tables, or document structure. Plain text is purely about the words - choose PDF or ODT when layout matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

HTML files contain markup code (tags, attributes, styles) that define structure and formatting. TXT files contain only plain text with no formatting. Converting HTML to TXT extracts the readable content and removes all the code.

Basic paragraph structure is typically preserved as line breaks in the output. However, complex layouts may not translate perfectly since plain text has no formatting capabilities.

Yes. If you've saved an HTML email or have the source code, our converter extracts the text content. This is useful for archiving or importing into systems that only accept plain text.

The clickable link functionality is removed, but the URL text itself may or may not appear depending on how the HTML was structured. Inline URLs typically remain; linked text may lose its associated URL.

Our browser-based converter handles typical HTML files without issues. For very large files (several megabytes), processing may take a few extra seconds but will complete successfully.

Yes. The conversion happens locally in your browser. Your HTML file isn't uploaded to any server - the processing occurs entirely on your device.

Yes. Upload multiple HTML files and convert them all to TXT in a single batch. This is especially useful when processing scraped web pages or multiple documents.

The output uses UTF-8 encoding, which supports international characters and special symbols. Your text content should appear correctly regardless of the original language.

Yes. All JavaScript code, inline scripts, and event handlers are stripped out during conversion. Only the visible text content remains in the output file.

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