html2text
Turn HTML into equivalent Markdown-structured text.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need HTML-to-text or HTML-to-Markdown conversion without external dependencies. The package is stable, widely used (top 5000 on PyPI), and has no known vulnerabilities. The aging maintenance status (last release 486 days ago) is a minor concern for new feature requests but does not block routine use. Avoid if you require active, frequent updates or have strict copyleft license restrictions in your project.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9 or later.
- Low install friction with no runtime dependencies.
- Maintenance status is aging—last release was 486 days ago—but the repository remains active and the package is marked Production/Stable with broad Python version support (3.9–3.13).
License · maintenance · safety
GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft) — Licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft). Any software that incorporates or distributes this package must also be released under a compatible copyleft license; proprietary or closed-source projects cannot use it without legal review.
last release 2025-04-15 (486 days) · last repo commit 2025-10-28 · 2,168 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 15,159,925 downloads/mo, #1,197 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install html2text
import html2text
h = html2text.HTML2Text()
h.ignore_links = False
print(h.handle("<p>Hello, <b>world</b>!</p>"))- Whether the aging maintenance status (486 days since last release) affects bug fixes or compatibility with newer Python minor versions beyond 3.13.
- Performance characteristics on large HTML documents or batch conversion workloads.
What it is and what it does
html2text is a command-line tool and Python library that transforms HTML into plain ASCII text formatted as valid Markdown. It strips HTML markup while preserving document structure—bold, italic, links, code blocks, and other semantic elements are converted to their Markdown equivalents. The tool offers fine-grained control over output through options like link handling (ignore, reference-style, or inline), special character escaping, and code block marking.
The package has zero runtime dependencies and works as both a standalone script (invoked with `html2text [filename]`) and as an importable Python module. It supports modern Python versions (3.9 through 3.13) on CPython and PyPy, making it suitable for integration into text processing pipelines, documentation generators, or any workflow that needs to extract readable content from HTML.
Use it for
- Extract readable text from web pages or HTML emails for archival or plain-text distribution.
- Convert HTML documentation to Markdown for version control and static site generators.
- Batch-process HTML files into text format for downstream NLP or text analysis tasks.
- Generate reference-style Markdown from HTML with customizable link formatting.
- Strip HTML markup while preserving semantic structure for accessibility or readability tools.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need HTML-to-text or HTML-to-Markdown conversion without external dependencies.
The package is stable, widely used (top 5000 on PyPI), and has no known vulnerabilities. The aging maintenance status (last release 486 days ago) is a minor concern for new feature requests but does not block routine use. Avoid if you require active, frequent updates or have strict copyleft license restrictions in your project.
Install
html2text on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. Maintenance status is aging—last release was 486 days ago—but the repository remains active and the package is marked Production/Stable with broad Python version support (3.9–3.13).
Requires Python 3.9 or later.
License in practice
Licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft). Any software that incorporates or distributes this package must also be released under a compatible copyleft license; proprietary or closed-source projects cannot use it without legal review.
Quickstart
pip install html2text
import html2text
h = html2text.HTML2Text()
h.ignore_links = False
print(h.handle("<p>Hello, <b>world</b>!</p>"))Verify before relying
- Whether the aging maintenance status (486 days since last release) affects bug fixes or compatibility with newer Python minor versions beyond 3.13.
- Performance characteristics on large HTML documents or batch conversion workloads.
Package facts
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later copyleft |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Aging 486 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 15,159,925 / month, #1,197 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPy |
Evidence: html2text-2025.4.15-py3-none-any.whl
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See also markdown2 · strip-markdown · mdit-plain · jusText · junit2html · mistune · ansi2txt · telegramify-markdown · readme-renderer