What does the text extractor do?

The text extractor converts formatted content into clean plain text. It removes HTML tags, strips formatting, decodes entities, and extracts readable text from various sources including HTML code, rich text pastes, and uploaded files. Perfect for cleaning web content, removing markup, and getting pure text for further processing.

What file formats are supported?

The extractor processes text-based files including TXT, HTML, HTM, XML, JSON, CSV, TSV, MD (Markdown), LOG, and similar formats. It reads file contents and extracts text based on the format type. Binary formats like DOCX, PDF, and images require specialized tools and are not supported in this browser-based solution.

How does HTML text extraction work?

HTML extraction removes all tags while preserving text content. It decodes HTML entities (& → &), converts line break tags to actual newlines, handles paragraph spacing, and optionally preserves or removes link URLs. The result is clean, readable text without any markup artifacts.

Can I extract specific elements from HTML?

Yes, you can filter extraction to specific HTML elements like headings only, paragraphs only, list items, links, or table content. This is useful when you need only certain parts of a webpage, such as all headings for an outline or all links for a URL list.

What whitespace cleaning options are available?

Options include: collapsing multiple spaces to single spaces, removing extra blank lines, trimming leading/trailing whitespace, preserving or converting line breaks, and normalizing all whitespace. These help produce consistently formatted text regardless of the source formatting.

Can I extract text from pasted rich content?

Yes, when you paste content from websites, Word documents, or other rich sources, the tool can extract plain text while removing hidden formatting. This is useful for cleaning clipboard content before using it in plain text contexts like code editors or forms.

Is my text data kept private?

Yes, all text extraction happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your content is never uploaded to any server, stored, or transmitted externally. Uploaded files are processed locally and never leave your device. Once you close the page, all data is immediately cleared from memory.

Text Extractor - Free Online Text Extraction Tool

Format	Extensions	Processing
HTML	.html, .htm	Strip tags, decode entities, extract content
Plain Text	.txt, .text, .log	Clean whitespace, normalize formatting
Markdown	.md, .markdown	Remove markdown syntax, preserve text
XML	.xml	Extract text nodes, remove markup
JSON	.json	Extract string values recursively
CSV/TSV	.csv, .tsv	Extract cell values, clean separators

Text extraction transforms formatted content into clean, usable plain text by removing markup, decoding entities, and normalizing whitespace. Our free online text extractor handles HTML, rich text, and various file formats, producing readable output suitable for analysis, database storage, or further processing. Whether cleaning web scraping results, converting documents, or extracting content for SEO analysis, this tool delivers immediate results.

HTML to Plain Text Conversion

Converting HTML to plain text requires more than simply removing tags. Proper conversion handles block elements like paragraphs and divs by inserting appropriate line breaks, decodes HTML entities to their character equivalents, preserves meaningful whitespace while collapsing redundant spaces, and optionally extracts or preserves link URLs. The result reads naturally as if originally written as plain text.

Selective Element Extraction

Sometimes you need only specific content from HTML documents. The extraction modes let you focus on headings for document outlines, paragraphs for main content, list items for structured data, or link text for navigation analysis. This selective approach produces targeted output without manually filtering through all page content, significantly speeding up content analysis workflows.

Whitespace Normalization

Web content often contains inconsistent whitespace from template formatting, copy-paste operations, or generated markup. The cleaning options normalize this variation: collapsing multiple spaces, controlling blank line handling, trimming line edges, and optionally producing single-line output. These options ensure consistent formatting regardless of how the source content was originally formatted.

File Format Processing

Beyond pasted content, the extractor processes uploaded files in various text-based formats. HTML and XML files have tags stripped. JSON files yield extracted string values. CSV and TSV files convert to readable text without delimiter noise. Markdown files remove formatting syntax while preserving content. This flexibility handles common data interchange formats encountered in content workflows.

Web Scraping and Content Migration

Web scrapers capture HTML that needs conversion for database storage or content analysis. Migration projects require extracting text from legacy systems using various formats. The extractor cleans this raw content into standardized plain text, removing the formatting variations accumulated across different source systems. Batch processing through copy-paste handles individual pages efficiently.

SEO and Content Analysis

SEO professionals analyze page content separate from markup to assess keyword usage, content length, and readability. The text extractor produces clean content for these analyses, removing navigation, footers, and other non-content elements when combined with selective extraction. Word counts and character counts on extracted text reflect actual content rather than markup-inflated totals.

Text Extractor

Extraction Mode

Cleaning Options

Quick Examples

Supported Input Formats

Professional Text Extraction for Content Processing and Data Cleaning