Plain Markdown

Guide

Plain Markdown turns the page you're reading into clean Markdown, right in your browser. No account, nothing to configure. From there, ask the page questions with AI or send it straight to Obsidian, Readwise, or Notion.

Capture

Getting started

Install once, then convert any page in a single click.

  1. Install from the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Open any page that starts with http or https.
  3. Click the extension icon. Your Markdown appears, ready to edit.

A few things you can set once in Settings:

  • Theme: Dark or light.
  • Add source info: Puts the title, URL, author, and date at the top, when available.
  • Open behavior: Open the popup on click, or jump straight to the floating panel.
  • Images: Image tags are kept by default so apps like Notion and Readwise can render them. Turn them off for text-only Markdown.

Floating editor panel

Open the floating panel from the popup to keep the editor pinned on the page. The popup closes the moment you click away, but the panel stays open as you scroll and read, so you can work with the page and your Markdown side by side.

Capture tabs

Convert several open tabs into one Markdown document. Each tab is converted on your device, then combined in the order you choose.

  1. Turn it on once in Settings → Multi-tab capture. Chrome asks for access to your sites so the extension can read the tabs you pick.
  2. Open the menu in the popup or floating panel and choose Capture tabs.
  3. Select the tabs to include and drag to set their order. Sleeping tabs are off by default; capturing one reloads it, then puts it back to sleep.
  4. Each tab shows its progress as it converts.

Up to 25 tabs at a time. Turn on "Add a contents list" in Settings to add a numbered, linked index at the top. The combined document lives in the editor only, so copy, download, or send it before you close the panel.

Edit

Editor

The editor keeps Markdown readable. Syntax marks stay hidden until your cursor lands on them, so you see clean text while you read.

  • Heading, bold, italic, and strikethrough marks fold away when your cursor is elsewhere.
  • Links show only their text. Put your cursor on one to reveal the full URL.
  • Images collapse to a compact pill with their alt text. Put your cursor on the image to reveal the full Markdown.

Drafts

Your work is safe even if you close the tab.

  • Changes save automatically as you type.
  • Drafts are kept per page and come back when you reopen the extension there.
  • Hit reset to discard your draft and pull a fresh copy from the page.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action Shortcut
Find & replace Cmd+F (macOS) or Ctrl+F (Windows, Linux)
Open a link Hold Cmd or Ctrl and click any link in the editor

AI & destinations

AI actions

Ask any page a question without leaving it. Pick a built-in action or type your own, and the answer streams into the editor.

  1. Click the actions button in the toolbar.
  2. Choose a built-in action, or type your own question about the page.
  3. The answer streams into the editor.

Free includes 30 AI actions per month. Pro raises that to 3,000 per month with a 200/day soft cap.

With BYOK, actions run through your own OpenRouter key and any model you pick, billed by your provider. Set it up in Settings → Actions; see pricing for details.

Customize or create your own actions in Settings. When you write your own prompt, press Shift+Enter for a new line.

Destinations

Send the converted Markdown straight to where you keep your reading and notes. Set up each destination in Settings.

  • Obsidian: opens the captured Markdown in your local Obsidian vault. The content stays on your device.
  • Readwise Reader: paste a Readwise access token to send pages to your Reader inbox with optional tags.
  • Notion: connect your workspace, pick where new pages should land, then send straight to Notion. Content goes from your browser to Notion; we never see it.

Using with LLMs

Large language models work better with clean input. Markdown strips the ads, navigation, and formatting noise, so the model sees only the content in fewer tokens.

  • Convert an article, then copy the Markdown into ChatGPT, Claude, or any LLM.
  • Trim the parts you don't need in the editor before you send it.
  • On a YouTube video, click the extension to pull the transcript as Markdown.

Help

Troubleshooting

  • Only http and https pages work. Browser internal pages won't convert.
  • If a conversion or the floating panel fails, reload the tab and try again.

Support

Email support@plainmarkdown.com for help or to report a bug.