See exactly how your Markdown will look, before you publish
Paste or type your Markdown on the left and watch it render to formatted HTML on the right in real time. No sign-up, no waiting — what you see in the preview is what your reader will see.
How to use the Markdown preview tool
- Type or paste your raw Markdown text into the editor panel.
- The live preview on the right updates as you type — no button to click.
- Check headings, links, code blocks, and images look right.
- Copy the rendered output or go back and tweak your source until it's perfect.
Worked example
Paste this Markdown into the editor:
# My Release Notes
## What's new
- **Dark mode** is now the default
- Fixed a bug where `config.json` was ignored on startup
> Upgrade by running `npm install my-app@latest`
[Full changelog](https://example.com/changelog)The preview instantly shows a bold H1 heading, a styled subheading, a bullet list with inline code, a block quote, and a clickable hyperlink. You can spot right away if a link is broken or a code span is missing a backtick.
Markdown syntax quick reference
Bookmark this table — it covers the elements you'll use every day.
| Element | Markdown syntax | Rendered result |
|---|---|---|
| Heading 1 | # Heading | Large bold heading |
| Heading 2 | ## Heading | Smaller section heading |
| Bold | **bold** | bold |
| Italic | *italic* | italic |
| Link | [text](url) | Clickable hyperlink |
| Inline code | `code` | Monospace code span |
| Code block | ```language ... ``` | Syntax-highlighted block |
| Bullet list | - item | • item |
| Numbered list | 1. item | 1. item |
| Block quote | > quote | Indented quote line |
| Image |  | Embedded image |
| Horizontal rule | --- | Divider line |
How to render Markdown in code
If you need to produce an HTML preview in your own project, here are the most common one-liners.
JavaScript (browser or Node.js)
// Using the 'marked' library (npm install marked)
import { marked } from 'marked';
const html = marked('## Hello\n\nThis is **Markdown**.');
console.log(html);
// Output: <h2>Hello</h2><p>This is <strong>Markdown</strong>.</p>Python
# pip install markdown
import markdown
html = markdown.markdown('## Hello\n\nThis is **Markdown**.')
print(html)
# Output: <h2>Hello</h2>\n<p>This is <strong>Markdown</strong>.</p>How the preview works
The tool parses your Markdown source using a CommonMark-compatible renderer — CommonMark is the widely-adopted standard spec for Markdown, defined at commonmark.org. It converts your plain-text syntax into HTML tags and displays them in a sandboxed iframe so the rendered view is isolated from the editor.
Everything runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never sent to a server or stored anywhere. Close the tab and it's gone.
When to use a live Markdown preview
- Writing README files — catch formatting mistakes before pushing to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
- Drafting docs — preview content for Notion, Confluence, or any docs platform that accepts Markdown.
- Blog posts — many static-site generators (Hugo, Jekyll, Astro) use Markdown; preview locally before building.
- Learning the syntax — see the effect of each symbol as you type; the fastest way to build Markdown muscle memory.
- Checking pasted content — quickly visualise Markdown copied from an API response or a database field.
When this tool isn't the right fit
- Platform-specific flavours — GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) adds tables, task lists, and strikethrough. The preview shows standard CommonMark; minor GFM-only features may differ slightly on GitHub itself.
- Very large documents — if your file is thousands of lines, a local editor like VS Code (which has a built-in Markdown preview via Ctrl+Shift+V) handles it with better performance.
- Converting to PDF or DOCX — use a tool like Pandoc for those output formats.
Takeaway: Paste your Markdown, see the rendered result instantly, and publish with confidence — use the preview tool above to get started now.