Markdown Viewer
Open a .md file or paste Markdown text. The preview renders instantly and everything stays in your browser.
Open a file or start typing. The preview will appear here.
(.md, .markdown, .txt) · Files are processed only in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
View Markdown files without installing anything
Markdown files are everywhere: documentation, notes, GitHub repositories and work with AI assistants and agents. Without the right app, though, they look like text full of asterisks and hash marks. This online viewer turns them into a readable document with headings, tables, highlighted code and an automatic table of contents. Just open the file, drag it into the window or paste the text.
What the viewer can do
- Instant preview. Type on the left and see the result on the right. In long documents both panes scroll together.
- GitHub style Markdown. Tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes, [!NOTE] style alerts and front matter.
- Code highlighting. Code blocks are highlighted for more than 30 languages including PHP, JavaScript, Python and SQL.
- Table of contents. Headings become a clickable outline, so you can find your way around a long README in seconds.
- Export. Copy the result as formatted text for Word or email or as HTML code, download it as an HTML page or save it as a PDF.
- Safe rendering. Scripts and dangerous HTML tags are stripped before display, so you can open files from unknown sources too.
Markdown to PDF and HTML
You can convert Markdown to PDF or HTML right here in your browser, without installing anything:
- 1 Open a .md file or paste text into the editor.
- 2 For PDF, click the PDF button and choose Save as PDF in the print dialog.
- 3 For HTML, click the HTML button. You get a standalone styled page that opens in any browser.
- 4 For Word or email, click Copy and simply paste the formatted result.
Your files stay with you
Markdown is converted to HTML right in your browser. Neither files nor text are sent to our server. By default your text is not stored anywhere. If you want to keep your draft after closing the page, turn on the Save text switch in the toolbar.
What is Markdown and a .md file
Markdown is a lightweight markup language for formatting plain text. A hash mark # starts a heading, two asterisks make text **bold** and a dash - starts a bullet point. The text stays readable as it is, and a Markdown viewer displays it fully formatted.
A file with the .md extension (sometimes .markdown) is a plain text file written in Markdown. John Gruber created the format in 2004 and today you will find it in GitHub README files, technical documentation, note apps such as Obsidian and in instructions for AI agents.
How to open a .md file
A .md file is plain text, so almost any editor can open it. The difference is whether you see the raw symbols or a formatted document.
Windows
The current Notepad in Windows 11 shows basic Markdown formatting, while older versions show only raw text. For a full preview use the free Visual Studio Code (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V) or apps such as Obsidian and Typora.
macOS
TextEdit and Quick Look (press Space in Finder) show the file as plain text. Visual Studio Code (Cmd+Shift+V), Obsidian or Typora display it formatted.
Android and iPhone
Most mobile text editors open the file without formatting. For comfortable reading use the Obsidian app or an online viewer right in your mobile browser.
Online, no installation
The quickest option is an online viewer like this one. It works on desktop and mobile, there is nothing to install and the file is never uploaded.
Markdown when working with AI and agents
When you work with AI assistants and agents, you run into .md files almost everywhere. Language models know Markdown well, it is plain text that is easy to write and track in Git, and it still has a clear structure with headings, lists and code blocks. People can read it as it is and models understand it without extra markup. That is why instructions for agents and the output agents produce are written in it:
AGENTS.md
An open standard with instructions for coding agents, read for example by Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI and Claude Code. It describes the project, commands and rules.
CLAUDE.md
Project memory for Claude Code. Since September 2026 it is no longer required: if it is missing, Claude Code reads AGENTS.md instead.
.github/copilot-instructions.md
Custom instructions for GitHub Copilot in a repository.
SKILL.md
A description of a skill the agent loads when it needs it, such as a procedure for working with a certain type of file. The format is used by Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other tools.
llms.txt
A Markdown file in the root of a website that briefly describes its content for language models.
Plans, specs and reports
Agents often write their work plan, a summary of changes or documentation into .md files so both people and other agents can read them.
When you want to read such a file or check it before use, open it here. You see it neatly formatted with a table of contents built from its headings, without installing an editor.
Markdown syntax cheat sheet
The most common elements supported by the viewer. Try them right in the editor above.
| Element | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Heading level 1 and 2 | # Heading / ## Subheading |
| Bold | **bold** |
| Italic | *italic* |
| Strikethrough | ~~strikethrough~~ |
| Link | [text](https://example.com) |
| Image |  |
| List | - item |
| Numbered list | 1. item |
| Task list | - [x] done |
| Blockquote | > quote |
| Alert | > [!NOTE] |
| Inline code | `code` |
| Code block | ```js ... ``` |
| Table | | A | B | |
| Footnote | text[^1] |
| Horizontal rule | --- |
How to make a table in Markdown
A Markdown table is made of rows where a vertical bar | separates the cells. The first row is the header and the second row separates it with dashes.
| Product | Price | In stock |
| :------ | ------: | :------: |
| Coffee | $4.50 | yes |
| Tea | $3.20 | no |Result
| Product | Price | In stock |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee | $4.50 | yes |
| Tea | $3.20 | no |
-
Colons in the separator row set the alignment:
:---left,---:right and:---:center. - Three dashes per column are enough in the separator row and the columns do not need to line up with spaces.
-
If you need a vertical bar inside a cell, write it as
\|.
Related Tools
More tools for preparing, editing, and checking text.
FAQ
Does this online viewer show tables and other GitHub elements?
[!NOTE], [!TIP] and [!WARNING] alerts and front matter. A GitHub README looks almost the same as it does on GitHub.