Text copied from ChatGPT and other AI chat tools sometimes arrives full of symbols: asterisks around words, hash signs before headings, and backticks or angle brackets scattered through the text. These are Markdown, a plain-text formatting syntax. Chat apps usually display it as formatting, but when the raw text lands somewhere that does not read Markdown, such as a plain-text field, a CMS editor or a social post, the symbols show up as they are. You can remove them with our free text cleaner, by asking for plain text in your prompt, or by hand.
Markdown syntax in this guide follows the CommonMark reference and the GitHub Flavored Markdown specification, checked October 2, 2026. Advice on prompts and editing is WriterFlowLab's editorial guidance. WriterFlowLab is not affiliated with OpenAI.
What the symbols mean
These are the Markdown markers you are most likely to see in copied AI text:
- # Heading: one to six hash signs at the start of a line mark a heading.
- **bold** and *italic*: asterisks around words mark emphasis. Underscores can be used in the same way.
- * item, - item or 1. item: bullet and numbered lists.
- > quote: an angle bracket at the start of a line marks a quotation.
- `code`: backticks mark code. Three backticks on their own line open and close a code block.
- [text](link): a link, with the visible text in square brackets and the web address in round brackets.
- --- or *** on their own line: a horizontal dividing line.
- ~~text~~: strikethrough. This, and tables built from vertical bars, come from GitHub Flavored Markdown rather than core Markdown.
Option 1: Use the text cleaner
- Open the text cleaner and paste your text.
- Tick Remove Markdown symbols. It is off by default, so the cleaner only touches Markdown when you ask it to.
- Leave the other default options on to tidy spacing and blank lines, or change them as needed.
- Select Clean text, check the result, then copy it.
With the option ticked, the cleaner:
- removes heading hashes, bold and italic asterisks, strikethrough tildes and code backticks;
- removes the lines that open and close code blocks, but keeps the code inside them unchanged;
- removes quotation markers and horizontal dividing lines;
- turns * and + bullets into - bullets, so lists stay readable, and leaves numbered lists as they are;
- turns links into the link text followed by the address in brackets, and images into their description.
It deliberately leaves some things alone, so that ordinary punctuation is not stripped by mistake:
- underscores, because they also appear in file names, email addresses and code;
- asterisks with spaces around them, as in 2 * 3, and hash signs that are not followed by a space, such as hashtags or C#;
- tables, HTML tags and any other formatting it does not recognise.
As with all our free tools, the cleaning runs in your browser. Your text is not sent anywhere and is not saved.
Option 2: Ask for plain text in your prompt
If you know the text is going somewhere that does not support Markdown, ask for plain text up front. For example:
"Reply in plain text with no Markdown: no asterisks, hash signs or backticks. Use short paragraphs, and write lists as plain lines starting with a hyphen."
Our guidance: AI tools do not always follow formatting instructions exactly, especially in long conversations, so check the output before you paste it anywhere important.
Option 3: Remove the symbols by hand
For a short piece of text, editing by hand is often quickest. If you use find and replace, be careful with asterisks and hash signs. Replacing every asterisk can damage maths, footnotes and passwords in examples, and replacing every hash sign can break hashtags. Search for ** and for a hash sign followed by a space first, then check the remaining symbols one at a time.
Example: before and after
Before, as pasted:
## Summary
Here are the **key points**:
* First point
* Second point with *emphasis*
> Remember: check facts.
See [our guide](https://example.com/guide).
After, with Remove Markdown symbols ticked:
Summary
Here are the key points:
- First point
- Second point with emphasis
Remember: check facts.
See our guide (https://example.com/guide).
Check the text after cleaning
- Lists and headings: once the symbols are gone, headings look like ordinary lines. Restore them with your editor's heading styles if you need them.
- Links: check that each address still points where it should, and decide whether to keep the address in brackets or turn it back into a link.
- Code and maths: check anything that uses symbols on purpose.
- The content itself: removing formatting does not check facts or improve the writing. Our checklist for cleaning AI-generated text before publishing covers the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Why does text from ChatGPT have asterisks and hash signs?
They are Markdown formatting. Chat apps usually display them as bold text, headings and lists, but the symbols themselves can appear when the text is pasted somewhere that does not read Markdown.
Will the text cleaner remove every asterisk?
No. It removes asterisks used as Markdown, such as **bold**, *italic* and * bullets, but leaves asterisks with spaces around them, as in 2 * 3, and asterisks inside code.
Does it change my text in any other way?
Only according to the options you tick. With Remove Markdown symbols unticked, the cleaner works exactly as before and leaves Markdown alone.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The text cleaner runs in your browser, and your text is not sent to WriterFlowLab or saved.
Next steps
Try the text cleaner on your next AI draft, check its length with the word counter, and make headings consistent with the case converter. For more on working with AI drafts, see what AI writing can and can't do.