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Text to Markdown Converter (TXT to MD)

Convert a .txt file to a .md file in your browser. Paragraphs stay paragraphs, stray whitespace is trimmed, and any Markdown syntax already in the text is kept. Free, and your file never leaves your device.

or from Google Docs, Word or a web page

PDF · DOCX · XLSX · HTML · JSON · XML · CSV · TXT · RTF · MD

Benefits

Why Convert Text to Markdown?

Get a real .md file

turn notes.txt into notes.md without renaming files by hand

Open it in a markdown editor

Obsidian, Typora, and VS Code treat .md files as notes with preview

Clean paragraphs

paragraphs separated by blank lines come through as proper Markdown paragraphs

Keeps your own Markdown

if your text already uses # headings or - lists, they stay exactly as written

Publish on markdown platforms

drop the .md file into Hugo, Jekyll, Ghost, or a GitHub repo

No file upload required

all processing happens locally in your browser

Simple Process

How to Convert TXT to MD

1

Drop your .txt file

Drag one or more .txt files onto the converter at the top of this page, or click paste text and paste the text instead.

2

Let it tidy the paragraphs

Paragraphs are kept, extra blank lines are collapsed and stray spaces at the start and end are trimmed, in your browser.

3

Download the .md file

Download each file as Markdown, or several at once as a ZIP, then add headings and lists in your editor.

What gets converted

A .txt file has no formatting to convert, so this converter is deliberately light. It keeps your words and paragraphs, cleans up the spacing, and gives you a .md file. It does not guess where headings or lists should go. This table shows exactly what happens.

In your text file Converted? In the .md file
Paragraphs separated by a blank line Yes Markdown paragraphs
Several blank lines in a row Yes Collapsed to one blank line
Spaces and tabs at the start and end of each paragraph Yes Trimmed
Markdown already in the text (#, -, 1., **) Yes Kept as written, so it renders
Unicode text and emoji in a UTF-8 file Yes Preserved
Single line breaks inside a paragraph Partial Kept in the file, but most renderers show them as a space
Characters Markdown reads as syntax, such as # or 1. at the start of a line Partial Not escaped, so they may render as a heading or a list
Files saved in Windows-1252 or another non-UTF-8 encoding Partial Accented characters may show as �
Headings, lists and bold inferred from plain text No Add them yourself; plain text has no formatting to read
Code No fence Kept as text; wrap it in triple backticks to show it as code

Rich text is different: if you copy from Google Docs, Word or a web page and paste it here, the headings, bold, lists, links and tables are converted. See Google Docs to Markdown.

Use Cases

Common Text Conversion Use Cases

Move notes into a markdown editor

Turn a folder of .txt notes into .md files for Obsidian, Typora, VS Code, or any markdown editor, then add headings and links as you go.

Start documentation from text files

Get plain text READMEs, changelogs, and notes into .md so static site generators like Hugo, Jekyll, or MkDocs pick them up.

Migrate text content to a markdown CMS

Move plain text content to markdown-based platforms like Ghost or a Git-backed CMS with clean paragraph breaks.

Prepare text for AI processing

Hand a tidy .md file to ChatGPT, Claude, or a RAG pipeline, and add structure with Markdown headings where it helps retrieval.

Add structure after converting

The fastest way to make a converted text file useful is to add a little Markdown by hand. Five symbols cover most documents:

  • # Title and ## Section at the start of a line make headings.
  • - item makes a bulleted list, 1. item a numbered one.
  • **word** makes bold text, *word* italic.
  • [link text](https://example.com) makes a link.
  • Three backticks on the lines above and below a block of code keep it as code.

The Markdown cheat sheet has the rest, with examples.

Common problems and fixes

My line breaks disappeared in the preview

In Markdown, a single line break inside a paragraph is treated as a space. Text that was wrapped at a fixed width reads fine that way, but addresses, poems and lists without markers run together. Put a blank line between the lines, end each line with two spaces, or turn the lines into a list with -.

A line turned into a heading or a numbered list

Markdown reads # at the start of a line as a heading and a number followed by a period, such as 2024., as a list item. If that wasn't meant as formatting, put a backslash in front: \#1 priority or 2024\. A good year.

Accented letters look broken

The file is read as UTF-8. Older Windows text files are often saved as Windows-1252 instead. Open the file in Notepad or another editor, save it with UTF-8 encoding, and convert it again.

The first line of my paragraph lost its indent

Leading spaces are trimmed on purpose. In Markdown, a line indented by four spaces becomes a code block, which is rarely what an indented paragraph means. Use a blank line between paragraphs instead of an indent.

Other ways to turn text into Markdown

  • Rename the file. A .md file is plain text with a different extension. If your text is already clean, renaming notes.txt to notes.md does nearly the same thing as this converter.
  • Open it in a Markdown editor. Obsidian, Typora and VS Code all edit .md files with a live preview, so you can add structure as you read.
  • Ask an AI assistant. ChatGPT or Claude can suggest headings and lists for unstructured text. Check the result, since a model can reword things, and remember that this sends your text to that service.

Use this page for a quick, private clean-up of one file or a batch, with nothing uploaded.

FAQ

Text to Markdown FAQ

Guides & Resources

Related Tools and Guides

Markdown to Plain Text

Reverse

Going the other way? Strip Markdown formatting and get clean text back.

Google Docs to Markdown

Paste

Paste rich text from Google Docs, Word or a web page and get Markdown with its formatting kept.

Markdown Viewer

Tool

Open your new .md file and see how it renders.

What Is an MD File?

Guide

What's inside an .md file and how to open one on any device.

Markdown Cheat Sheet

Reference

Every Markdown element with copy-paste examples, for adding structure to your converted text.

Convert Any File to Markdown

All Formats

Convert PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, and more to .md.

Ready to convert your text files?

Drop a .txt file and get a clean .md file in seconds. No signup required.

Open the Converter