Remove Markdown From ChatGPT Text: Every Symbol It Actually Leaves Behind

ChatGPT's chat window renders markdown into visible formatting, so it's easy to forget the raw text underneath still has all the markup symbols in it. Paste that raw text into an email or document, and every one of these symbols shows up literally instead of rendering as intended.

Bold and Italic

Before: The team hit **92%** of target.
After:  The team hit 92% of target.

Double asterisks mark bold, single asterisks mark italic — both get stripped while keeping the actual words.

Headings

Before: ## Q3 Results
After:  Q3 Results

One to six pound signs at the start of a line mark a heading level — all get removed, leaving just the heading text.

Lists

Before: - Strong renewal rates
        - A new pricing tier
After:  Strong renewal rates
        A new pricing tier

Bullet markers (-, *, or +) and numbered list markers (1., 2.) both get removed, while the indentation of nested lists is preserved.

Links

Before: Check the [full report](https://example.com/report) for details.
After:  Check the full report for details.

The markdown link syntax disappears, but the visible link text stays — the destination URL is dropped since it's not meaningful in plain text anyway.

Blockquotes and Horizontal Rules

Before: > This is a quoted line.
        ---
After:  This is a quoted line.

The > prefix on quoted lines and the --- divider lines both get removed entirely.

Code Blocks and Inline Code

Before: Run \`npm install\` to set things up.
After:  Run npm install to set things up.

Backticks around inline code and triple-backtick code blocks are both stripped, keeping the code text itself intact.