Why does ChatGPT text come with asterisks and hash signs?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and most AI assistants write their answers in Markdown, a format that uses symbols to mark up style: **bold**, ## heading, - bullet.
When you copy an answer, depending on the button you use and where you paste it, the text arrives either formatted (fonts, sizes, headings) or with the Markdown symbols showing. The second one happens mostly when pasting into forms, CMSs or code editors, or when pasting without formatting with Ctrl+Shift+V.
How to remove formatting from ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini
- Copy the AI's answer (with its copy button or by selecting it).
- Paste it in the box above: the visual formatting disappears when you paste.
- Click Remove Markdown to get rid of asterisks, hash signs and other symbols.
- Click Remove extra spaces to clean up double spaces and invisible characters.
- Copy the result with Copy plain text and paste it wherever you want.
If something doesn't turn out as expected, Ctrl+Z (⌘ Cmd+Z on Mac) undoes the last change.
What the “Remove Markdown” button does
- Bold, italics and strikethrough: removes the asterisks, underscores and tildes, and keeps the word.
- Headings: removes the hash signs (
#,##…) at the start of the line. - Lists: turns bullet dashes and asterisks into bullet points (•). Numbered lists stay as they are.
- Links and images: keeps only the link text, without the URL in parentheses.
- Code: removes the backticks and leaves the contents of code blocks untouched.
- Tables: removes the pipes and separates columns with tabs, so you can paste them straight into Excel or Google Sheets.
- Quotes and dividers: removes the
>at the start of lines and the---lines.
Invisible characters in AI text
Sometimes AI-generated text includes characters you can't see: special spaces (such as the narrow or non-breaking space) or zero-width characters. They can cause odd line breaks, make word searches fail or cause problems when pasting into forms.
The Remove extra spaces button deletes them or turns them into regular spaces.
If the shortcut doesn't work in your app, paste the text in the box above, click Copy plain text and paste it wherever you want: it will arrive without any formatting.