Paste plain text and get clean, valid HTML: blank lines become <p> paragraphs, single line breaks become <br>, URLs and email addresses become links, and special characters are safely escaped. Preview the result and copy or download it.
Last updated:
Everything is converted in your browser. Your text is never uploaded.
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How to use the Text to HTML Converter
Paste your text into the Plain text box, or press Load sample to see how it works.
Choose a line-break mode: paragraphs separated by blank lines, one paragraph per line, or one block with tags.
Pick the options you need: links, mailto links, list detection, headings, entity encoding or a full HTML document.
Press Convert to HTML (the output also updates as you type) and switch to Preview to see the rendered result.
Copy the HTML into your CMS, email template or code editor, or download it as an .html file.
How plain text maps to HTML
HTML ignores ordinary line breaks and collapses runs of spaces, so text pasted straight into a web page runs together into one block. The converter adds the structure that plain text only implies:
In your text
HTML output
Notes
Blank line between blocks
<p>…</p>
Each block becomes a paragraph
Single line break
<br> or <br />
Keeps addresses, poems and signatures on separate lines
Lines starting with -, * or •
<ul><li>…</li></ul>
Unordered list
Lines starting with 1. or 1)
<ol><li>…</li></ol>
Ordered list, with start if it does not begin at 1
Need the opposite direction? Use Strip HTML Tags to turn HTML back into plain text, or Markdown to HTML if your text already uses Markdown formatting such as **bold** and [links](url).
Frequently asked questions
How does the converter decide where paragraphs start?
In the default mode, any blank line (an empty line or a line with only spaces) ends one paragraph and starts the next, and each paragraph is wrapped in <p>…</p>. A single line break inside a paragraph becomes a <br> tag so the line still breaks in the browser. You can switch to 'Every line becomes its own <p>' if your text has no blank lines between paragraphs.
Why are & and < changed to & and <?
In HTML, < starts a tag and & starts a character reference, so plain text containing them must be escaped or the browser may treat it as markup. The converter always escapes &, <, > and double quotes, which also prevents any HTML or script hidden in the pasted text from running.
Do I need to encode accented letters and symbols as entities?
Not if your page is served as UTF-8, which is the default for modern HTML (<meta charset="utf-8">). Characters like é, € or emoji can stay as they are. Choose named or numeric entities only when the HTML will be pasted into an older system that does not handle UTF-8 correctly.
Which URLs are turned into links?
Text starting with http://, https:// or www. is linked; www. addresses get https:// added to the href. Trailing punctuation such as a full stop or closing bracket at the end of a sentence is left outside the link. Email addresses become mailto: links when that option is on.
How are lists detected?
Consecutive lines starting with a bullet character (-, *, +, • and similar) followed by a space become a <ul> list, and lines starting with a number followed by . or ) become an <ol> list. If a numbered list starts at a number other than 1, the start attribute is added so the numbering is preserved.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs entirely in JavaScript in your browser. Your text and settings are only remembered in this browser's local storage so they are still there when you come back.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.