Google Docs to Markdown converter

How to convert Google Docs to Markdown

1. Copy from the document. In Google Docs or Word, select the text (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A for all of it) and copy it with Ctrl+C or Cmd+C.
2. Paste into the box. Click the box and paste with Ctrl+V or Cmd+V. The Markdown appears under it, with a count of headings, links and tables.
3. Check, then copy or download. Read the Markdown, then copy it or download it as a .md file. Up to 5 MB of pasted content.

You can also type or paste plain text. It is converted with the plain text rules below. If you edit the pasted text in the box, the formatting is gone and the text is converted as plain text; paste again to get it back.

How the paste is read

When you copy from a document, the clipboard holds two versions: plain text, and HTML with the formatting. A normal text box only takes the plain text, so headings, bold and links are lost. This tool reads the HTML version, cleans it, and converts it with the same HTML to Markdown converter that Paperlink AI uses for website pages, in the mode that keeps links and emphasis.

Google Docs and Word both write unusual HTML, so the tool fixes it first:

Example

A short returns section in Google Docs has a heading, a paragraph with bold text and a link, a bulleted list with one nested item, and a code in a monospace font. Pasted here, it becomes:

## Returns

You can return an item within **30 days**. Read the [terms](https://example.com/terms).

- *Keep the receipt*
  - Paper or email
- Use the code `RET-30`

The heading level comes from the Docs paragraph style: Heading 2 becomes ##. Text that is only large and bold stays a paragraph, so use the heading styles in your document.

Plain text to Markdown

When the clipboard has no formatting, or you select Ignore formatting, the plain text rules apply:

• Each line becomes its own paragraph, because Docs and Word copy one paragraph per line.
• Lines that start with a bullet (•, ◦, -, * or +) become - list items, and lines that start with 1. or 1) become numbered items.
• Indent a line by 2 spaces or a tab to nest it under the item above.
• Markdown marks you typed, such as # or **, stay as they are.

This plain text:

Returns
You can return an item within 30 days.
• Keep the receipt
  ◦ Paper or email
1) Pack the item

becomes:

Returns

You can return an item within 30 days.

- Keep the receipt
  - Paper or email
1. Pack the item

Download as Markdown, or paste?

Google Docs can export a whole document: File, then Download, then Markdown. That is a good choice for a complete document. Paste here when you need one section, when the text comes from Word, an email or a web page, or when you want to check and edit the Markdown before you save it. For a Word file you have on disk, the Word to Markdown converter reads the .docx file directly.

What is not converted

• Images pasted as data. Docs often copies images inside the HTML instead of as a web address. They are too large for Markdown, so they are left out with their alt text, and the result tells you how many.
• Comments and footnotes. Comments are not copied with the text, and footnote numbers stay as plain text.
• Colors, fonts and underline. Markdown has no marks for them.
• Merged table cells. Tables become Markdown pipe tables, with the first row as the header. Merged cells are split. To edit a table, paste it into the Markdown table generator.

To tidy pasted HTML without converting it to Markdown, use the HTML cleaner.

Why teams move documents to Markdown

Markdown is plain text, so it works in docs repositories, static site generators, help centers and AI tools, and it shows clearly what changed between two versions. It also keeps the structure of a document (headings, lists, tables) in very few characters, which matters when you give the text to a language model.

If your help content lives in Google Docs today, Paperlink AI can answer customer questions from it: upload the documents as files, or publish them on your help center and import the pages. The bot answers only from that content and says when it does not know.