How to remove the asterisks and hash signs from ChatGPT text

If text from ChatGPT arrives full of ** and ##, you are looking at Markdown: the symbols chat apps use for bold, headings and lists. Paste the text into Gren and the symbols go as it lands, while your words, lists, links and code stay.

Updated 7 October 2026 · 4 minute read

What the symbols mean

Markdown marks formatting with ordinary characters. Chat apps read the symbols and show formatting instead. Most other places show the symbols as they are.

Why they turn up when you paste

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot all write their answers in Markdown, and the chat window turns the symbols into formatting. The symbols are still part of the text. The copy button often puts the raw Markdown on your clipboard, so in a LinkedIn post, an Instagram caption, an email or a text message, asterisks and hash signs appear where the bold and the headings were.

How to remove them with Gren

1. Copy the answer from the AI chat, with its copy button or by selecting the text.
2. Open gren.app and paste it into a note. The Markdown symbols go as the text lands, and a message says how many there were.
3. Copy the clean text into your post, email or document. Copy all text in the command list copies the whole note.

For text already in a note, press Cmd K (Ctrl K on Windows, or the magnifying glass on a phone) and choose Clean AI text. It works on a selection or the whole note.

The same clean removes hidden characters, turns dashes into commas and straightens curly quotes. Undo clean in the message brings back exactly what you copied, and Clean AI text when pasting, in the command list, switches the automatic clean off.

What stays

• Lists stay lists. Each bullet becomes a hyphen, and numbered lists keep their numbers.
• Code is kept exactly as written, without the backticks around it.
• Web addresses, file paths, sums such as 2 * 3 and names such as snake_case are left alone.
• Tables become columns separated by tabs, so they paste straight into a spreadsheet.

Other ways to avoid the symbols

• Ask for plain text. Add "Reply in plain text, without Markdown" to your message, or to ChatGPT's custom instructions so it applies to every chat. It works most of the time, but not always.
• Keep the formatting in Google Docs. If you want real bold and headings, switch on Enable Markdown in Google Docs, under Tools then Preferences. Then right-click and choose Paste from Markdown.