DeGPT
·4 min read

How to Remove Markdown from ChatGPT Output

Strip asterisks, hashtags, and code blocks from ChatGPT text to get clean, professional output ready to paste anywhere.

You ask ChatGPT a simple question and get a great answer. But when you try to use it in an email, document, or presentation, you see:

**Here are the key points:**

- *First item* with `code`

- **Second item** that is important

### Subheading

All those asterisks, hashtags, and backticks are markdown - a formatting language that ChatGPT uses. It looks fine in the chat interface but becomes messy when pasted elsewhere.

What is markdown and why does ChatGPT use it?

Markdown is a lightweight way to format text using simple symbols:

  • **bold** makes text bold
  • *italic* makes text italic
  • # Heading creates headings
  • `code` formats inline code
  • - item creates bullet points

ChatGPT outputs markdown because it renders nicely in the chat interface. The problem is that most other applications - email clients, Word, Slack, Notion - don't automatically convert it.

Method 1 - Manual find and replace

You can manually remove markdown characters:

  1. Paste your text into a text editor
  2. Use Find & Replace to remove ** (bold markers)
  3. Replace * with nothing (italic markers)
  4. Remove # symbols from headings
  5. Remove backticks from code snippets

This works but is tedious and error-prone, especially with longer texts or nested formatting.

Method 2 - Ask ChatGPT to reformat

You can ask ChatGPT directly:

"Please rewrite your previous response without any markdown formatting"

This sometimes works, but:

  • ChatGPT often adds markdown back automatically
  • It may change the content while reformatting
  • It costs extra tokens/usage
  • You need to do this for every response

Method 3 - Use DeGPT to strip markdown instantly

If you regularly need clean text from ChatGPT, DeGPT makes it effortless.

Step 1 - Copy from ChatGPT

Select and copy the response you want to clean up.

Step 2 - Paste into DeGPT

  • Open DeGPT in ChatGPT or at degpt.app
  • Paste your text into the input box

Step 3 - Enable Strip Markdown

Turn on the Strip Markdown toggle. DeGPT will:

  • Remove all asterisks (bold/italic markers)
  • Remove hashtag headings
  • Strip code backticks
  • Clean up link formatting
  • Preserve the actual text content

Step 4 - Copy and use

Click Copy to get your clean text, then paste it anywhere.

The result is clean, professional text that pastes perfectly into emails, documents, presentations, or any other application.

Common places where markdown causes problems

Email clients

Outlook, Gmail compose, and most email clients show raw asterisks instead of bold text. Your professional email suddenly looks like a coding exercise.

Microsoft Word and Google Docs

Word processors don't parse markdown. You end up manually deleting characters or using Find & Replace repeatedly.

CRM and support systems

Salesforce, Zendesk, and similar tools often display markdown as plain text, making your carefully crafted response look unprofessional.

Presentations

PowerPoint and Google Slides show all the formatting characters. Nothing says "I used AI" quite like asterisks all over your slides.

Beyond markdown - other cleanup options

While removing markdown, you might also want to:

  • Fix bullet points - normalize different list styles into consistent bullets
  • Clean spacing - remove extra line breaks and normalize paragraph gaps
  • Remove PII - hide emails, phone numbers, or names if you're sharing the text

DeGPT offers all these options in one place, so you can customize exactly how your text comes out.

Next steps

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