HTML to plain text email converter, with links kept as footnotes
To convert an HTML email to plain text, paste the HTML source here and press Convert. Headings, paragraphs and lists are kept, links become numbered footnotes with the URLs listed at the end, and tracking pixels, styles and hidden preheader text are removed. Lines wrap at 78 characters, ready to use as the email's text/plain part.
Sample result
The plain-text version keeps both links and drops 1 tracking pixel.
- Links kept
- 2
- Hidden elements dropped
- 1
- Characters
- 198
What this means for you
Send it with your HTML email so every inbox gets a readable version.
- Links as footnotes, inline or text only
- Drops tracking pixels and hidden text
- Wraps at 78 characters without breaking URLs
- Image alt text kept in brackets
- Plain text
- Multipart
- Links
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I convert an HTML email into a plain-text version?
- Copy your email's HTML source from your email platform's code view, or upload the .html file.
- Choose how links appear: numbered footnotes (the most readable), inline URLs, or text only.
- Press Convert to plain text. Hidden preheaders and 1×1 tracking images are left out by default.
- Read the result, adjust anything awkward, then paste it into your platform's plain-text version field.
Example
- You enter
- A newsletter's HTML with two links, a hidden preheader and a 1×1 tracking pixel, with links as footnotes.
- You get
- 13 lines of plain text (198 characters) wrapped at 78 characters, both links kept as numbered footnotes, and the tracking pixel and hidden preheader left out.
- Limits
- No limit; runs in your browser.
How do I convert an HTML email to plain text?
Paste the HTML into a converter that understands email structure, like this one, rather than stripping the tags. Stripping tags (<[^>]+> in a regex) leaves the CSS from the <style> block, the hidden preheader, image file names and every link's text without its URL. This tool parses the HTML properly in your browser and writes text the way a person would: a blank line between paragraphs, dashes for bullets, numbers for ordered lists and the URL for every link.
Most email platforms can generate a plain-text version for you, but the automatic one is worth reading before you send. Layout tables often turn into run-together lines, and buttons become link text with no context; a converted draft you've edited reads better.
What is the difference between HTML and plain text email?
An HTML email carries formatting, images and styled links; a plain-text email is just characters, with URLs written out. Most marketing email is sent as both in one message: a multipart/alternative message, defined in RFC 2046 (section 5.1.4), holds a text/plain part and a text/html part, and each mail client shows the richest one it can.
The plain part is what text-only clients, some accessibility tools, smartwatch previews and people who turn off HTML see. Leaving it out, or leaving it nearly empty, means those readers get nothing useful.
Should cold emails be plain text?
Most cold email practitioners write them to look like plain text: no images, no layout, one or two links at most. A personal message from one person to another rarely arrives as a designed template, so a designed template signals bulk mail. This converter is useful in reverse here too: paste an HTML draft and see how much of it is really text.
If you do keep links, link tracking rewrites them through a tracking domain; see the CNAME lookup to check a custom tracking domain, and the spam words checker for the copy itself.
How long should lines be in a plain-text email?
At most 78 characters, as RFC 5322 (section 2.1.1) recommends; the hard limit is 998. Wrapping is on by default and never splits a word or URL, so a long link stays on one line where it remains clickable.
Some senders prefer unwrapped text and let the mail client wrap it, which reads better on phones. Turn wrapping off if your platform encodes the text part with format=flowed or reflows it anyway.
Is this better than stripping the HTML tags?
| This converter | Regex tag stripping | |
|---|---|---|
| Link URLs | Kept as footnotes or inline | Lost: only the link text remains |
| CSS and hidden preheaders | Removed | Left in as text |
| Lists and headings | Dashes, numbers, capitals | Run together |
| Line length | Wrapped at 78 | Unchanged |
Entities like | Decoded | Left as written |
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Email marketers
- Write a proper text/plain part for each campaign instead of shipping whatever the platform auto-generates.
- Developers
- Produce the text alternative for transactional templates and check it before wiring it into the mailer.
- Cold emailers
- Turn a template that was drafted in HTML into the plain-looking message that outreach calls for.
- Support teams
- Convert a formatted help-desk macro into text for channels that only accept plain text.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It converts structure; complex multi-column layouts may still need a manual tidy.
- Content that exists only as images (text baked into a banner) can't be recovered beyond the alt text.
- Tracking pixels are detected by size (1×1 or 0px); other trackers in the HTML aren't analysed.
- It doesn't build the MIME message; paste the result into your platform's plain-text field.
Common questions
- How do I convert HTML to plain text?
- Paste the HTML into the converter above and press Convert to plain text. It keeps the readable structure (paragraphs, lists, headings, link URLs) and drops styles, scripts, tracking pixels and hidden text.
- What is a plain text email?
- An email with no HTML formatting: only text, with links written as full URLs. Many emails include a plain-text part alongside the HTML version for clients that don't display HTML.
- Can plain text emails have hyperlinks?
- Yes, as written-out URLs. Most mail clients make a URL in plain text clickable, but you can't hide it behind link text, which is why footnotes like [1] are a common convention.
- How do I change an email from HTML to plain text in Outlook?
- In the message window, open the Format Text tab and choose Plain Text. To read all mail as plain text, go to File › Options › Trust Center › Trust Center Settings › Email Security and tick "Read all standard mail in plain text".
- What is better, HTML or plain text email?
- It depends on the message. Newsletters and receipts benefit from HTML; one-to-one and cold emails usually do better looking like plain text. Sending HTML with a good plain-text alternative covers both.
- What does a plain text email look like?
- Like a typed letter: short paragraphs separated by blank lines, dashes or numbers for lists, and URLs written out in full or listed as numbered footnotes at the end.
Sources
Authentication and capacity are half of deliverability.
The other half is who you send to. Every hard bounce counts against the domain and inboxes you are sending from, and nothing in DNS can tell you which addresses on your list are dead.
- Bulk verification with real SMTP mailbox checks
- Hard bounces removed before a send, not discovered after
- Catch-all, disposable and role detection on every row
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