Copy as Plain Text – Copy Web Text Without Formatting

Copy any selected text from web pages without formatting, styles, fonts, or colors.

Copy as Plain Text is a lightweight Chrome extension that strips rich text and copies only clean plain text to your clipboard. No more carrying over unwanted fonts, colors, background highlights, or hidden HTML styling when you paste. What you copy is exactly what you get — pure, format-free text.

Trigger a clean copy any way you like: the right-click context menu, a customizable keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+C), or the toolbar button. Built-in text sanitization can automatically trim whitespace and collapse multiple blank lines, and every copy is saved to a local history of up to 50 items, so you can revisit and re-copy previous snippets anytime.

It’s built for professionals who need clean text from websites, documents, emails, and articles — without dragging along unwanted formatting.

How It Works

1. Select text on any webpage.
2. Trigger the copy via the right-click menu, keyboard shortcut, or toolbar button.
3. The extension injects a lightweight script into the active tab that reads your selection, removes all HTML styling, and writes clean plain text to your system clipboard.
4. Optional sanitization (trim whitespace, collapse multiple lines) is applied based on your settings.
5. The text is stored in a local history list for quick access later.

Who Can Use This Extension

• Writers and editors pasting web content into Word, Google Docs, or a CMS without importing unwanted styles.
• Researchers collecting clean quotes and references from academic sites.
• Developers copying code snippets without syntax highlighting or color formatting.
• Students gathering notes from multiple sources into a single, uniform document.
• Anyone who regularly copies from websites into emails, spreadsheets, or presentations and wants consistent, format-free text.

Key Features

• Strips all formatting — removes fonts, colors, styles, and hidden HTML, leaving clean plain text.
• Three ways to copy — right-click context menu, customizable shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+C), or toolbar button.
• Smart sanitization — optionally trim whitespace and collapse multiple blank lines automatically.
• Clipboard history — stores up to 50 recent copies locally for quick re-copying.
• Lightweight and fast — a minimal script that won’t slow down your browsing.
• Works everywhere — copy clean text from articles, emails, docs, and any webpage.
• Privacy-first — history stays local on your device; nothing is sent to any server.

Why Copy Text Without Formatting

Copying straight from a webpage usually brings along invisible baggage — font families, sizes, colors, link styling, and background highlights that clash with wherever you paste. Cleaning that up by hand, or hunting for “Paste special → Keep text only” every time, wastes time and breaks your flow. Copy as Plain Text removes the formatting at the moment you copy, so the text lands clean in Word, Google Docs, Gmail, Excel, Slides, or any CMS. One shortcut, consistent results, every time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Copy as Plain Text do? It copies selected text from any webpage as clean plain text, stripping fonts, colors, styles, and hidden HTML so nothing unwanted comes along when you paste.

How do I copy text as plain text? Select the text, then use the right-click menu, the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+C by default), or the toolbar button. The extension copies a clean, format-free version to your clipboard.

Can I change the keyboard shortcut? Yes. The Ctrl+Shift+C shortcut is customizable, so you can set the combination that works best for you.

Does it keep a history of what I copy? Yes. Every copy is saved to a local history of up to 50 items, so you can revisit and re-copy previous snippets whenever you need them.

Can it clean up extra spaces and blank lines? Yes. Optional sanitization can automatically trim whitespace and collapse multiple blank lines, based on your settings.

Where can I paste the plain text? Anywhere — Word, Google Docs, Gmail, Excel, PowerPoint, a CMS, or any text field. Because the text is format-free, it adopts the styling of wherever you paste it.

Is my clipboard history private? Yes. Your copy history is stored locally on your device and is never sent to any server.

Will it slow down my browser? No. It’s a lightweight extension that only runs a small script when you copy, so it stays fast and unobtrusive.

Install Copy as Plain Text and copy clean, format-free text from any webpage — no more fighting unwanted fonts, colors, and styles.