Why a REST API for this?
You already know how to turn HTML into Markdown by hand: paste it into a converter tab, copy the result back. That works once. It does not work when the conversion lives inside a script, a build step, an LLM pipeline or a cron job.
Feeding LLMs
Models read Markdown far better than raw HTML. Strip tags and noise before you send pages into a prompt — fewer tokens, fewer distractions, better answers.
Content pipelines
Pull documentation, changelogs or articles from anywhere and land them in your CMS, wiki or static site as clean Markdown files.
Glue scripts
One curl from bash, one requests.post() from Python, one fetch() from Node. If it can speak HTTP, it can use it.
Your options today
| Option | How it works | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial APIs | Full-featured extraction endpoints | API keys, monthly fees, rate limits on free tiers |
| Self-hosted libraries | turndown, html2text, etc. |
You own the install, edge cases and maintenance |
| Online converters | Paste HTML into a form | Manual only — cannot be called from a script |
| Clean Copy API | Plain REST: POST HTML, get Markdown. No key, no fee | Max 50 KB input; be gentle (≤10 req/s) |
Quickstart in 30 seconds
The endpoint is POST /api/clean-copy. Send a JSON object with an html field; get JSON back with a markdown field.
curl
curl -s -X POST https://cleancopy.tools/api/clean-copy \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"html":"<h1>Hello</h1><p>This is <b>bold</b>.</p>"}'{"ok":true,"markdown":"# Hello\n\nThis is **bold**.","mode":"markdown","input_chars":44,"output_chars":22}Python
import requests
r = requests.post(
"https://cleancopy.tools/api/clean-copy",
json={"html": open("page.html").read()},
timeout=15,
)
print(r.json()["markdown"])Node (no dependencies)
const res = await fetch("https://cleancopy.tools/api/clean-copy", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ html: "<h2>Docs</h2><p><a href='/'>home</a></p>" }),
});
const { markdown } = await res.json();Convert a live URL instead of raw HTML
curl -s -X POST https://cleancopy.tools/api/clean-copy \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"url":"https://example.com/article"}'The API fetches the page server-side, extracts the main content and returns it as Markdown — handy when you don't have the HTML locally yet.
Options that matter
| Field | Values | What it does |
|---|---|---|
html | string | Raw HTML input (max 50 KB). Required unless you pass url. |
url | string | Fetches the page server-side and converts it. |
mode | markdown | text | Markdown output, or stripped plain text. |
# Headings preserved
H1–H6 map to the right number of #, so document structure survives.
[Links](intact)
Links become standard Markdown references with original URLs.
Tables → pipe tables
Simple HTML tables become Markdown pipe tables, alignment included.
Noise stripped
Scripts, styles, tracking pixels and hidden junk are removed automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Yes — no key, no account, no card. The limits are technical, not commercial: 50 KB of HTML per request and a soft cap of 10 requests per second.
What happens if my HTML is too big?
The API answers with an error message telling you so. Split the document and send the parts — headings and links keep working across calls since conversion is stateless.
Do you store my content?
No. Conversion is stateless: your HTML is processed for the response and not kept.
Prefer running it locally?
Same engine ships offline as the Clean Copy CLI, as a browser extension, and as an npm library — see Clean Copy.
Related: HTML to Markdown from the Terminal · HTML to Markdown Converter (online) · URL to Markdown Converter · Try it in the browser
Keeping websites online? DeskUptime is a free desktop uptime & SSL-expiry monitor for macOS, Linux and Windows.