How it works
- Paste the AI answerStraight from the chat, Markdown symbols and all.
- Pick how plain you want it“Markdown only” keeps your dashes and quotes; “Plain text” also simplifies punctuation.
- CopyPaste into Word, an email, a form or a post. No stray symbols.
Why ChatGPT text is full of asterisks and hashes
AI chat assistants write in Markdown, a lightweight way to mark up text: **bold**, # Heading, - bullet. The chat window renders those marks into real bold text and headings, so you never see them. But the copy button in many apps gives you the raw Markdown, and anywhere that doesn’t render Markdown (most email clients, Word, forms, LinkedIn, SMS) the symbols show up literally.
What each symbol means, and what this tool does with it
| You see | It meant | Result |
|---|---|---|
| **text** | Bold | text |
| *text* or _text_ | Italic | text |
| ## Title | Heading | Title |
| - item / * item | Bullet | - item |
| `code` | Inline code | code |
| [docs](https://…) | Link | docs (https://…) |
| ~~text~~ | Strikethrough | text |
| --- | Divider line | (removed) |
| > quote | Block quote | quote |
| ``` | Code fence | (fence removed, code kept) |
Variable names like my_variable and maths like 2 * 3 are left alone, because underscores and asterisks only count as emphasis when they wrap a word.
Stop it at the source
Often the easiest fix is to ask for plain text up front. Add a line such as “Reply in plain text only: no Markdown, no asterisks, no headings.” to your prompt, or put it in the assistant’s custom instructions or system prompt. Models follow it most of the time, not always, which is why a cleaner is still useful as a safety net.
When you should keep the Markdown
Many tools do understand Markdown: Notion, Obsidian, GitHub, Discord, Reddit and most documentation sites. In those, pasting the Markdown gives you real headings and lists. If you need cleaning there, use the “Notion (keep structure)” preset, which only removes invisible characters and odd spaces. Google Docs can also convert Markdown while pasting if you enable it in its preferences, which avoids the problem entirely for documents.
Known limits
- Tables are not converted. The pipes (
|) and dashes of a Markdown table stay as they are. - Nested lists keep their indentation but not their numbering style.
- It cleans symbols, not wording. The text stays exactly as the AI wrote it.
FAQ
How do I remove asterisks from ChatGPT text?
Paste the text above. Bold and italic markers (**, *, _) are removed and the words kept. You can also ask the assistant to answer in plain text.
Does it remove the table pipes (|)?
No. Markdown tables are not converted, so the pipes and header dashes stay. Copy the table into a spreadsheet instead.
Will it break my code blocks?
The fence lines are removed and the code inside is kept as written. If you want to keep code blocks exactly, use the Notion preset.
Why are my underscores still there?
Underscores that are part of a word, like snake_case, are kept on purpose. Only underscores wrapping a word for italics are removed.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Everything happens in your browser with regular expressions. Nothing is sent or stored.