How to remove asterisks from ChatGPT text (and keep the formatting)

The asterisks and pound signs in a pasted ChatGPT answer are markdown, the plain-text code chat apps use for bold, headings and lists. ChatGPT draws the formatting on screen, but copying often hands over the raw code instead. To fix it, paste the answer into a markdown to text converter: Copy gives you plain text, and Copy for Google Docs turns the code into real headings, bold and lists.

Why ChatGPT answers paste with asterisks

Chat apps write in markdown, a shorthand created in 2004 that marks formatting with ordinary keyboard characters. The app reads the code and shows you formatted text. Whether you get the formatting or the code when you copy depends on how you copy and where you paste: plain-text boxes, email, many apps and some copy buttons receive the raw markdown, so the symbols appear.

Fix 1: Convert it to plain text

Paste the answer into the markdown to text converter and click Copy. The symbols come out and the words stay. Tables become tab-separated rows and math becomes readable text, while names like snake_case and sums like 2 * 3 are left alone. Use this for essays, forms, emails and anywhere formatting will not survive anyway.

Fix 2: Paste it into Google Docs as real formatting

If you want the headings and bold, convert the markdown instead of deleting it. In the converter, click Copy for Google Docs, then paste into your document. Headings arrive as Docs headings, bold as bold, lists as lists and tables as tables. It works in Word too.

Google Docs can also do this on its own. Turn on Tools, Preferences, Enable Markdown, then right-click in your document and choose Paste from Markdown (Google added it in July 2024). It handles standard markdown, but not LaTeX math, hidden characters or ChatGPT citation leftovers, so a cleaner is still the better choice for answers that carry those.

Fix 3: Ask ChatGPT not to use markdown

You can head the problem off in your prompt, or once for every chat in custom instructions:

Write in plain text with no markdown. Do not use asterisks, pound signs, bullet symbols or tables.

This works most of the time. Models do slip, especially in long answers with lists, so look before you paste.

What else comes along with the asterisks

• Citation leftovers. Answers that searched the web can carry strings like :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}. See what :contentReference[oaicite] means.
• Em dashes and curly quotes. Typographic punctuation that keyboards do not type. See why ChatGPT uses so many em dashes.
• Hidden characters. No-break spaces and other characters you cannot see. See how to remove hidden characters from ChatGPT text.

The AI watermark remover handles all of these and the markdown in one paste.