Extract clean, readable plain text from raw HTML markup.
HTML to Text extracts clean plain text from raw HTML markup, reporting word counts and character counts. It identifies main article bodies automatically, records the extraction method used, and notes whether parsing succeeded.
Try it — live request, no key required
No key required to try it. Get a key to use it in your app.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"text": "This is an example paragraph. Anything in the body tag will appear on the page, just like this p tag and its contents.",
"parsed": true,
"extractionMethod": "article",
"detectedLanguage": {
"language": "english",
"confidence": 0.3507446808510638
},
"characterCount": 118,
"wordCount": 23
}
}
About the HTML to Text API
HTML to Text works by parsing the HTML content and extracting the text. Text extraction is done by removing the HTML tags and returning the plain text content. Advanced algorithms are used to ensure accurate text extraction.
What people use it for
- Inbound Email Parsing
- Strip HTML markup from customer support emails before passing unformatted message bodies into ticket triage queues.
- Search Engine Indexing
- When crawling web pages, remove formatting tags and extract readable text to compute accurate word counts for search indices.
- LLM Prompt Preparation
- To minimize prompt token counts, data engineers strip raw article markup down to readable text before querying language models.
- Feed Snippet Generation
- Content aggregators convert rich blog markup into plain text snippets for previews, push notifications, and mobile readers.
Ways to call it
One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.
- JSON
- Default REST response
- XML
- Markup format
- YAML
- Human-readable
- CSV
- Tabular export
- GraphQL
- Query language
- MCP
- For AI agents
Other ways to use HTML to Text
Same data, same APIVerve account, same credit balance — one key works on all of them.
Is it cheap enough to clean HTML for every incoming document?
Do I get language detection on the Free plan?
Does it strip all HTML tags from the content?
Do I get text metrics like word count alongside the extracted text?
Can I process HTML fragments as well as full documents?
Request parameters — POST /v1/htmltotext
Sent as JSON in the request body. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.
Required
| Parameter | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
htmlRequired | string | <html><body><h1>Welcome</h1><p>This is a paragraph of text.</p><ul><li>Item 1</li><li>Item 2</li></ul></body></html> | The HTML to convert to text |
curl -X POST "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"html":"<!doctype html> <html> <head> <title>This is the title of the webpage!</title> </head> <body> <p>This is an example paragraph. Anything in the <strong>body</strong> tag will appear on the page, just like this <strong>p</strong> tag and its contents.</p> </body> </html>"}'Authentication
Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.
| Header | When | Value |
|---|---|---|
x-api-keyRequired | Every request | Your API key. Header names are case-insensitive, so X-API-Key is the same header. |
AuthorizationAlternate | Instead of the above | Bearer <key> — for clients that only expose bearer auth. Resolves to the same account and the same billing. |
content-typeRequired | POST body | application/json |
A 401 means the key is missing, invalid or expired. A 403 means the key is valid but not permitted here — blocked by a key restriction or an IP allow-list. Running out of credits is a 429.
Response — POST /v1/htmltotext
Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.
{
"status": "ok",
"error": null,
"data": {
"text": "This is an example paragraph. Anything in the body tag will appear on the page, just like this p tag and its contents.",
"parsed": true,
"extractionMethod": "article",
"detectedLanguage": {
"language": "english",
"confidence": 0.3507446808510638
},
"characterCount": 118,
"wordCount": 23
}
}
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.
| Field | Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
text | string | "This is an example paragraph. Anything in the body tag will appear on the page, just like this p tag and its contents." | The article text extracted from the HTML, or null when no article body could be identified |
parsed | boolean | true | Whether article text was successfully extracted - false when the HTML held no identifiable article body |
extractionMethod | string | "article" | How the text was obtained: article when article-body extraction succeeded, markup when it fell back to reading all the markup, none when no text was found. |
detectedLanguagePremium | object | {...} | Detected language with confidence score |
languagePremium | string | "english" | |
confidencePremium | number | 0.3507446808510638 | |
characterCount | number | 118 | Number of characters in extracted text |
wordCount | number | 23 | Number of words in extracted text |
Response headers
Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.
| Header | What it carries |
|---|---|
x-api-remaining-credits | Credits left in the current cycle |
x-api-credits-used | Credits spent in the current cycle |
x-api-max-credits | The allowance for the cycle |
x-api-version | Version of the endpoint that answered |
Errors
Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
400 | Input was rejected | Read error; it names the parameter that has to change. |
401 | Key missing or invalid | Check the header name and the key value. |
403 | Key valid, but not permitted here | A key restriction or an IP allow-list — never a bad key. |
429 | Rate limited, or out of credits | Read error to tell them apart, then back off or top up. |
What a call costs — 2 credits per call
Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.
| Plan | Per month | Credits | HTML to Text calls | Per 1,000 calls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 200 | 100 | Free |
| Starter | $29.99 | 200,000 | 100,000 | $0.30 |
| Pro | $99.99 | 1,000,000 | 500,000 | $0.20 |
| Mega | $299.99 | 4,000,000 | 2,000,000 | $0.15 |
Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.
Call it from cURL — POST /v1/htmltotext
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/htmltotext with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Node.js — POST /v1/htmltotext
Install the Node.js SDK, then call the HTML to Text API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
npm install @apiverve/htmltotextconst res = await fetch("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext", {
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
});
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Python — POST /v1/htmltotext
Install the Python SDK, then call the HTML to Text API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
pip install apiverve-htmltotextimport requests
res = requests.get(
"https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext",
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
print(res.json()["data"])Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from C# / .NET — POST /v1/htmltotext
Install the C# / .NET SDK, then call the HTML to Text API with your key. The client wraps the same HTTPS request, so anything it returns is what the endpoint returns.
dotnet add package APIVerve.API.HTMLtoTextusing var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY");
var json = await client.GetStringAsync("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext");
Console.WriteLine(json);Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Go — POST /v1/htmltotext
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/htmltotext with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext", nil)
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
defer res.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from PHP — POST /v1/htmltotext
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/htmltotext with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
$ch = curl_init("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ["x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
echo $response;Resources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Call it from Ruby — POST /v1/htmltotext
No SDK to install — this is a plain HTTPS call to /v1/htmltotext with your key in the x-api-key header. Swap in a real key and it runs as-is.
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext")
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["x-api-key"] = "YOUR_API_KEY"
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts res.bodyResources
Also published for
Only the languages APIVerve ships a client for are listed — the rest call the endpoint directly over HTTPS.
Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend
Drop an interactive HTML to Text form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.
Changelog — HTML to Text API
Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.
Entries are picked up from dated catalog snapshots, so the first one appears after the next snapshot that moves something. A period where nothing changed produces no entry — silence is a valid changelog for the HTML to Text API.
Data Processing
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