Free Online Text Cleaner
Paste messy text and get clean, plain text back. Remove hidden characters, extra spaces, line breaks, Markdown and the formatting that comes with text from ChatGPT, Claude, PDFs or Word, all in your browser.
- Free, no sign-up
- Cleans as you type
- Hidden character checker
- Text never leaves your device
Or drop a text file anywhere in this box
Your clean text will appear here
It updates as you type. Pick a preset, or press Options to choose exactly what gets cleaned.
Change what gets cleaned with the Options button above your text. Your words stay the same unless you turn on case, find and replace or one of the "Remove" options.
No hidden characters, odd spaces, AI citation tags or tracking codes in your text.
Where they are (tap one to select it)
Your text with hidden characters shown
What is a text cleaner?
A text cleaner takes text you copied from somewhere else and strips out the junk that came with it. That means hidden characters you can't see, odd spaces, broken line breaks, leftover Markdown symbols and the citation tags chat apps add. What's left is plain, tidy text you can paste anywhere.
WrittenCheck's text cleaner does it as you type. Pick a preset, or choose each option yourself, and the clean version appears on the right. Your words don't change unless you ask them to.
What it cleans
| Problem | Where it comes from | What the cleaner does |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden characters | Web pages, chat apps, Word, some keyboards | Removes zero-width spaces, joiners, BOM marks, soft hyphens, tag and control characters. Joiners that emoji or Hindi, Urdu and Persian spelling need are kept. |
| Unusual spaces | Web pages, PDFs, word processors | Turns no-break, narrow and thin spaces into normal spaces. |
| AI citation tags | Copying answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and other chat apps | Removes tags like [oaicite:0], [cite_start] and 【4:0†source】 and tidies the gap they leave. |
| Tracking in links | Links copied from AI answers | Strips codes like ?utm_source=chatgpt.com and keeps the link working. |
| Broken line breaks | Text copied from PDFs and emails | Joins lines into proper paragraphs and fixes words split with a hyphen at the end of a line. |
| Extra spaces and empty lines | Everywhere | Turns double spaces into one, trims line ends and removes extra empty lines. |
| Markdown and HTML | AI answers, web pages, code editors | Removes ** bold markers, # headings, links and tags, and keeps the words. |
| Styled and lookalike letters | Social media "fancy text", spam, copied web text | Turns 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 or full-width letters into normal ones, and swaps Cyrillic or Greek lookalikes hidden in English words. |
Presets for common jobs
- Standard clean removes hidden characters, odd spaces, citation tags, tracking codes, extra spaces and extra empty lines. It's safe for almost any text.
- AI text adds long dashes, curly quotes, Markdown and lookalike letters. Use it for text from ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini that you're pasting into a document, email or website.
- Plain text turns rich text into plain text: no Markdown, no HTML, no emojis, no styled letters.
- Fix PDF line breaks joins the short lines you get when copying from a PDF and puts split words back together, while keeping paragraphs.
- Remove all line breaks puts everything on one line, which is handy for forms, spreadsheets and code.
How to use the text cleaner
- Paste your text into the left box, or open a text file.
- Pick a preset from the menu above the box, or press Options to choose each setting yourself.
- Check the result on the right. "What changed" lists every fix, and "Hidden characters" shows what was hiding in your text and where.
- Copy or download the clean text.
Hidden character checker
Some characters take up no space at all. Zero-width spaces, word joiners and byte order marks are invisible on screen, but they break search, word counts, passwords, code and form fields. The "Hidden characters" view lists each one with its name, Unicode code and place in your text. Tap one to jump to it.
The checker also finds invisible Unicode "tag" characters. These can spell out a hidden message that people can't see but software can read, and they've been used to slip hidden instructions to AI tools. If your text has any, the cleaner shows what they say.
Remove line breaks and extra spaces
Copying from a PDF gives you a line break at the end of every printed line. Emails often add their own. Choose "Join lines, keep paragraphs" to turn those lines back into normal paragraphs, or "Remove all line breaks" to get one continuous line. Words split with a hyphen at the end of a line are joined back together.
The cleaner also turns double spaces into single ones, trims spaces at line ends and can remove empty or duplicate lines.
Clean text from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
Text copied from AI chat apps often comes with extras: citation tags, tracking codes on links, Markdown symbols, curly quotes and long dashes. The "AI text" preset clears them in one go, so the text pastes cleanly into Word, Google Docs, a website or an email.
One thing a cleaner can't do is remove the AI watermarks some companies now add. Claude, Gemini and, for users in the EU, ChatGPT hide them in the word choices themselves, not in characters, so cleaning doesn't change them. If you want to know how AI-like a text reads, our free AI detector can tell you.
Convert to plain text
Rich text carries formatting you can't always see. The "Plain text" preset strips Markdown and HTML, turns styled Unicode letters back into normal ones and removes emojis, so you're left with clean plain text that works in any app, form or code editor.
Your text stays private
Everything happens in your browser. Your text isn't sent to our server or anyone else's, and nothing is saved. The only thing the page remembers is which options you picked, stored in your own browser. You can load the page, go offline, and it still works.
Common questions
What does a text cleaner do?
It removes the formatting junk that comes with copied text: hidden characters, odd spaces, broken line breaks, extra spaces, Markdown and HTML, AI citation tags and tracking codes. You get plain, tidy text that pastes cleanly anywhere.
Will the text cleaner change my words?
No, not with the standard options. It only removes characters and formatting. Your words change only if you turn on letter case, find and replace, or one of the "Remove" options such as links or emojis.
How do I find hidden characters in text?
Paste the text and open the "Hidden characters" view. It lists every invisible character, odd space, citation tag and tracking code, with its name, Unicode code and position. Tap any item to select it in your text.
How do I remove line breaks from text?
Set "Line breaks" to "Remove all line breaks" for one continuous line, or "Join lines, keep paragraphs" to fix text copied from a PDF. The "Remove all line breaks" and "Fix PDF line breaks" presets do this in one click.
Can I clean text copied from ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes. The "AI text" preset removes citation tags, tracking codes, Markdown symbols, long dashes, curly quotes and hidden characters. It doesn't rewrite anything, and it can't remove the statistical watermarks some AI companies add to word choices.
How do I convert text to plain text?
Choose the "Plain text" preset. It removes Markdown and HTML, turns styled and full-width letters into normal ones and drops emojis. Then copy or download the result.
Does it remove em dashes?
Yes, if you want it to. Tick "Long dashes" and em and en dashes become a normal hyphen. Number ranges like 10–20 become 10-20. It's off by default, because dashes are normal punctuation.
Is my text uploaded or stored?
No. The cleaner runs entirely in your browser and never sends your text anywhere. Only your chosen options are remembered, in your own browser.
Is there a limit?
You can clean up to 500,000 characters at a time, with no daily limit and no sign-up.
Will cleaning text change an AI detector score?
Don't expect it to. AI detectors, including ours, read the wording, and cleaning keeps the wording the same. It just makes the text tidy and easy to use.
Last updated 18 October 2026.
