[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":177},["ShallowReactive",2],{"content-/markitdown-online":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":13,"extension":14,"meta":15,"navigation":171,"path":172,"seo":173,"sitemap":174,"stem":175,"__hash__":176},"content/markitdown-online.md","MarkItDown Online: Convert Files to Markdown, No Python",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":9},"minimark",[],{"title":10,"searchDepth":11,"depth":11,"links":12},"",2,[],"Looking for MarkItDown online? Craft Markdown is a free, independent alternative that converts PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, CSV and JSON to Markdown in your browser. No pip install, no uploads.","md",{"layout":16,"sections":17,"schema":133},"default",[18,24,46,59,62,93,126],{"type":19,"badge":20,"headline":21,"subheadline":22,"showBackground":23},"conversionHero","Free • Runs in your browser • Nothing uploaded","MarkItDown Online: Convert Files to Markdown Without Python","Microsoft's MarkItDown is a Python library. If you just want the Markdown, drop a PDF, Word, HTML, CSV or JSON file here instead. Craft Markdown is an independent tool that does the conversion in your browser, so nothing is installed and nothing leaves your device.",false,{"type":25,"title":26,"items":27},"features","Why Use This Instead of Installing MarkItDown?",[28,31,34,37,40,43],{"title":29,"description":30},"No Python, no pip","MarkItDown needs Python 3.10 or newer and a pip install. This page needs a browser tab.",{"title":32,"description":33},"Nothing is uploaded","the conversion runs as JavaScript in your browser. There is no server that receives your file.",{"title":35,"description":36},"Instant","drop a file and the Markdown appears. No virtual environment, no terminal, no dependencies to resolve.",{"title":38,"description":39},"Same output goal","clean Markdown with headings, lists and links kept, ready for ChatGPT, Claude, RAG or Obsidian.",{"title":41,"description":42},"Free, no account","no signup, no limits, no credit card. Convert as many files as you like.",{"title":44,"description":45},"Honest about limits","MarkItDown handles more formats. The table below shows exactly where each tool wins.",{"type":47,"title":48,"steps":49},"howItWorks","How It Works",[50,53,56],{"title":51,"description":52},"Drop your file","PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML or RTF",{"title":54,"description":55},"It converts in your browser","no upload, no waiting on a server",{"title":57,"description":58},"Download the Markdown","then paste it into your AI chat, notes or repo",{"type":60,"markdown":61},"articleContent","## What people mean by \"MarkItDown online\"\n\n[MarkItDown](https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown) is an open-source Python utility from Microsoft that converts files to Markdown \"for use with LLMs and related text analysis pipelines.\" It is excellent, and it is also a library: you install it with pip, run it from a terminal or from Python code, and it needs Python 3.10 through 3.14.\n\nThere is no official MarkItDown website where you can drop a file. Searches for \"markitdown online\" usually come from people who want that result without the setup. That is what this page is for.\n\nTo be clear: **Craft Markdown is not MarkItDown and is not affiliated with Microsoft.** It is an independent browser-based converter that solves the same everyday problem, turning a document into clean Markdown, with a different set of trade-offs. The comparison below is meant to help you pick the right one.\n\n## MarkItDown vs Craft Markdown\n\n| | MarkItDown (Microsoft) | Craft Markdown (this site) |\n|---|---|---|\n| **What it is** | Python library and CLI, MIT licensed | Free web tool |\n| **Where it runs** | Locally in Python 3.10 to 3.14; also as an MCP server (markitdown-mcp) or in Docker | In your browser, as JavaScript |\n| **Install** | pip install 'markitdown[all]' plus a virtual environment | None |\n| **Where your file goes** | Stays on your machine, unless you enable the Azure or LLM options | Stays in your browser tab, never uploaded |\n| **PDF** | Yes (plain text) | Yes (headings from font size, lists, simple tables) |\n| **Word (DOCX)** | Yes | Yes |\n| **HTML** | Yes | Yes |\n| **CSV, JSON, XML** | Yes | Yes |\n| **Plain text, RTF, Markdown** | Text yes | Yes |\n| **Excel (XLSX, XLS)** | Yes | Yes (also ODS), one table per sheet |\n| **PowerPoint (PPTX)** | Yes | No |\n| **Images** | EXIF metadata and OCR; LLM image descriptions with an OpenAI-compatible client | No |\n| **Audio** | EXIF metadata and speech transcription | No |\n| **ZIP, EPUB, YouTube URLs, Outlook .msg** | Yes | No |\n| **Scanned PDFs and complex layouts** | Via Azure Document Intelligence or Azure Content Understanding (billable cloud calls) | Text-based PDFs only |\n| **Batch and automation** | Scripts, pipelines, plugins, MCP tool for agents | One or several files dropped by hand |\n| **Time to first conversion** | Minutes (set up Python, install, run) | Seconds (open page, drop file) |\n| **Cost** | Free (open source); Azure features are paid | Free |\n\nSources: the [MarkItDown README](https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown) and the [markitdown-mcp README](https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown/tree/main/packages/markitdown-mcp), checked September 2026. Craft Markdown's format list is taken from its own converter code.\n\n## When to use which\n\n**Use Craft Markdown (this page) when:**\n\n- You have a PDF, Word, HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, TXT or RTF file and want the Markdown now.\n- You do not have Python installed, or you are on a locked-down work machine.\n- The document is sensitive and you want a guarantee that it never leaves your device. There is no server-side code here to upload to.\n- You want a .md file you can attach or paste straight into ChatGPT, Claude, Notion or Obsidian.\n\n**Use MarkItDown when:**\n\n- You need PowerPoint, images, audio, EPUB, ZIP archives or YouTube transcripts.\n- You want OCR for scanned PDFs or LLM-written image descriptions.\n- You are converting hundreds of files, building a RAG ingestion pipeline, or giving an AI agent a convert_to_markdown tool over MCP.\n- You are already writing Python and want conversion as a function call.\n\nMany people use both: the browser tool for one-off files, MarkItDown in the pipeline.\n\n## How to install MarkItDown if you need it\n\nIf your use case lands on the MarkItDown side of the table, here is the short version of the official setup.\n\n**1. Create a virtual environment** (Python 3.10 to 3.14):\n\n```bash\npython -m venv .venv\nsource .venv/bin/activate\n```\n\n**2. Install it with every optional format:**\n\n```bash\npip install 'markitdown[all]'\n```\n\nOr pick only the formats you need, for example pip install 'markitdown[pdf, docx, pptx]'. The available extras are pptx, docx, xlsx, xls, pdf, outlook, az-doc-intel, az-content-understanding, audio-transcription and youtube-transcription.\n\n**3. Convert a file from the command line:**\n\n```bash\nmarkitdown report.pdf -o report.md\n```\n\nYou can also pipe input (cat report.pdf | markitdown) or call it from Python:\n\n```python\nfrom markitdown import MarkItDown\n\nmd = MarkItDown(enable_plugins=False)\nresult = md.convert(\"report.pdf\")\nprint(result.markdown)\n```\n\n**4. Optional: use it from an AI agent.** pip install markitdown-mcp and run markitdown-mcp to get a local MCP server that exposes one tool, convert_to_markdown(uri), for Claude Desktop and similar clients.\n\nFor scanned documents, the CLI accepts -d -e \"\u003Cdocument_intelligence_endpoint>\" to route conversion through Azure Document Intelligence. That sends the file to Azure and is billed per call.\n\n## What this page converts\n\nCraft Markdown accepts these extensions today: .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .xls, .ods, .html, .htm, .txt, .csv, .json, .xml, .rtf and .md. Files up to 50 MB. From Word and HTML, headings, lists, links, images and emphasis are kept as Markdown syntax and tables become pipe tables; Word images are extracted into an images/ folder in a ZIP, or embedded as data URIs if you choose. Spreadsheets and CSV become pipe tables. PDFs get their paragraphs rejoined, headings guessed from font size, lists, bold and simple tables picked up, and repeating headers and footers dropped; complex tables come through as text. JSON and XML are wrapped in fenced code blocks. For a format-by-format look, see the [PDF to Markdown](/pdf-to-markdown), [Word to Markdown](/word-to-markdown) and [HTML to Markdown](/html-to-markdown) pages.\n",{"type":63,"title":64,"items":65},"faqs","Frequently Asked Questions",[66,69,72,75,78,81,84,87,90],{"question":67,"answer":68},"Is this the official MarkItDown online version?","No. Craft Markdown is an independent tool and has no affiliation with Microsoft or the MarkItDown project. MarkItDown is a Python library you install locally; Microsoft does not publish a hosted web version. This page exists for people who want the same result, a document turned into Markdown, without installing anything.",{"question":70,"answer":71},"Can I use MarkItDown online for free without installing Python?","Not MarkItDown itself, since it only ships as a Python package. You can use Craft Markdown on this page for free with no install. It converts PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML and RTF files to Markdown in your browser.",{"question":73,"answer":74},"Is my file uploaded anywhere?","No. Craft Markdown runs entirely as JavaScript in your browser. The file is read from your disk into the browser's memory, converted, and shown to you. There is no server that receives it. Note that MarkItDown's Azure Document Intelligence and LLM image-description options do send content to cloud services; its built-in converters do not.",{"question":76,"answer":77},"What formats does MarkItDown support that this tool does not?","PowerPoint (PPTX), images with OCR and EXIF metadata, audio with speech transcription, ZIP archives, EPUB, YouTube URL transcripts and Outlook messages. If you need any of those, install MarkItDown with pip install 'markitdown[all]'.",{"question":79,"answer":80},"Can this convert scanned PDFs?","Craft Markdown extracts the text layer of a PDF, so it works on PDFs with selectable text. For scanned image-only PDFs, MarkItDown with Azure Document Intelligence, or another OCR tool, is the better choice.",{"question":82,"answer":83},"How do I install MarkItDown?","With Python 3.10 to 3.14 installed, run pip install 'markitdown[all]' inside a virtual environment. Then convert a file with markitdown yourfile.pdf -o yourfile.md. The full instructions are in the section above and in the project's README on GitHub.",{"question":85,"answer":86},"Does MarkItDown have an MCP server?","Yes. The markitdown-mcp package provides a local MCP server with one tool, convert_to_markdown(uri), that AI clients such as Claude Desktop can call. Install it with pip install markitdown-mcp.",{"question":88,"answer":89},"Which produces better Markdown?","For Word and HTML, both keep headings, lists, links and pipe tables. For PDFs, MarkItDown gives you the text layer as plain paragraphs, while Craft Markdown also guesses headings from font size, picks up lists and simple tables, and drops repeating headers and footers. MarkItDown pulls ahead on formats Craft Markdown does not handle, and on scanned or complex layouts when its Azure options are enabled. Craft Markdown wins on time to result and on privacy by design.",{"question":91,"answer":92},"Is Craft Markdown free?","Yes. No signup, no limits and no payment. MarkItDown is also free and MIT licensed; only its optional Azure cloud features cost money.",{"type":94,"title":95,"subtitle":96,"items":97},"relatedArticles","Related Tools and Guides","More ways to get clean Markdown out of your documents.",[98,103,107,112,116,121],{"name":99,"badge":100,"description":101,"link":102},"PDF to Markdown Converter","Tool","Convert text-based PDFs to Markdown in your browser, with headings, lists, bold and simple tables recovered.","/pdf-to-markdown",{"name":104,"badge":100,"description":105,"link":106},"Word to Markdown Converter","Turn DOCX files into clean Markdown without Pandoc or Python.","/word-to-markdown",{"name":108,"badge":109,"description":110,"link":111},"Craft Markdown vs Pandoc","Comparison","Another browser-vs-command-line comparison, this time against Pandoc.","/craft-markdown-vs-pandoc",{"name":113,"badge":109,"description":114,"link":115},"Best PDF to Markdown Converters","Browser tools, CLIs and Python libraries for PDF conversion compared.","/best-pdf-to-markdown-converters",{"name":117,"badge":118,"description":119,"link":120},"Convert Documents for ChatGPT & Claude","AI Guide","How to prepare files for AI assistants so they get the structure, not the noise.","/convert-documents-for-chatgpt",{"name":122,"badge":123,"description":124,"link":125},"Free Markdown Converter","All Formats","The main converter: PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, TXT and RTF to Markdown.","/markdown-converter",{"type":127,"title":128,"subtitle":129,"cta":130},"ctaBanner","Skip the pip install","Drop a PDF, Word, HTML, CSV or JSON file at the top of this page and get Markdown in seconds. Nothing is uploaded.",{"text":131,"link":132},"Back to the Converter","/",{"faqPage":134,"howTo":152,"softwareApplication":164},{"questions":135},[136,138,139,141,143,145,147,149,151],{"question":67,"answer":137},"No. Craft Markdown is an independent tool and has no affiliation with Microsoft or the MarkItDown project. MarkItDown is a Python library you install locally; Microsoft does not publish a hosted web version.",{"question":70,"answer":71},{"question":73,"answer":140},"No. Craft Markdown runs entirely as JavaScript in your browser. There is no server that receives your file. MarkItDown's Azure and LLM options do send content to cloud services; its built-in converters do not.",{"question":76,"answer":142},"PowerPoint, images with OCR, audio transcription, ZIP archives, EPUB, YouTube URL transcripts and Outlook messages. If you need those, install MarkItDown with pip install 'markitdown[all]'.",{"question":79,"answer":144},"Craft Markdown extracts the text layer of a PDF, so it works on PDFs with selectable text. For scanned image-only PDFs, MarkItDown with Azure Document Intelligence or another OCR tool is the better choice.",{"question":82,"answer":146},"With Python 3.10 to 3.14 installed, run pip install 'markitdown[all]' inside a virtual environment. Then convert a file with markitdown yourfile.pdf -o yourfile.md.",{"question":85,"answer":148},"Yes. The markitdown-mcp package provides a local MCP server with one tool, convert_to_markdown(uri). Install it with pip install markitdown-mcp.",{"question":88,"answer":150},"For Word and HTML, both keep headings, lists, links and pipe tables. For PDFs, MarkItDown gives plain paragraphs, while Craft Markdown also guesses headings from font size, picks up lists and simple tables, and drops repeating headers and footers. MarkItDown pulls ahead on formats Craft Markdown does not handle and on scanned layouts with its Azure options. Craft Markdown wins on time to result and on privacy by design.",{"question":91,"answer":92},{"name":153,"description":154,"steps":155},"How to convert a file to Markdown online without MarkItDown","Get MarkItDown-style Markdown from a PDF, Word, HTML, CSV or JSON file in the browser, with no Python install",[156,158,161],{"name":51,"text":157},"Drag a PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML or RTF file onto the converter at the top of this page",{"name":159,"text":160},"Wait a moment","The file converts in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.",{"name":162,"text":163},"Download","Download the Markdown as a .md file",{"name":165,"applicationCategory":166,"operatingSystem":167,"offers":168},"Craft Markdown Online Converter","UtilitiesApplication","Web Browser",{"price":169,"priceCurrency":170},"0","USD",true,"/markitdown-online",{"title":5,"description":13},{"loc":172},"markitdown-online","cHdmO7P6JSX6YeBxUl8JNNrnqdLBwrI-LGZ4guYn3bA",1791690569542]