Free online HTML cleaner — clean up & simplify HTML
Paste HTML to clean it up
Settings
What exactly does it do?
- Fixes malformed HTML (unclosed tags, invalid nesting)
- Reduces the markup to:
<html lang>,<head>,<meta charset name content>,<title>,<body>,<p>,<blockquote cite>,<hr>,<figure>,<figcaption>,<a href title target>,<strong>,<em>,<b>,<i>,<s>,<u>,<br>,<h1>,<h2>,<h3>,<h4>,<h5>,<h6>,<img src alt width height loading>,<picture>,<source srcset sizes media type src>,<video src width height poster controls preload>,<audio src controls preload>,<table>,<caption>,<thead>,<tbody>,<tfoot>,<tr>,<th colspan rowspan>,<td colspan rowspan>,<col span>,<colgroup span>,<code>,<pre>,<ul>,<ol start type reversed>,<li>,<dl>,<dt>,<dd>,<abbr title>,<cite>,<dfn>,<kbd>,<samp>,<var>,<mark>,<small>,<q>,<wbr>,<del datetime cite>,<ins datetime cite>,<sub>,<sup>,<time datetime> - Replaces:
<strike>to<del>,<tt>to<code>,<acronym>to<abbr>,<dir>to<ul>,<listing>to<pre>,<xmp>to<pre>,<plaintext>to<pre> - Reformats the HTML (line breaks, indents)
How to use HTML Washer
- Paste your HTML into the homepage and press the Wash button
- Or upload a file directly
- Download or copy the cleaned result
- Check the full help guide for details on wash modes and options
History of HTML
HTML has roots stretching back to 1969, when IBM's Generalized Markup Language first introduced the idea of intent-based markup. Tim Berners-Lee built on that foundation at CERN in 1989, creating both the web and its markup language. From the browser wars of the mid-1990s through the XHTML detour, the rise of HTML5, and the eventual shift to the WHATWG Living Standard, the language has been shaped as much by politics and competing visions as by technical needs. Read the full timeline covering every major milestone from GML to the present day.
Also check out our:
Check out our Apify actor for web scraping.
Powered by Trafilatura, a battle-tested Python library that accurately extracts main content from web pages while filtering out boilerplate like navigation, ads, and sidebars.
Ideal for building RAG pipelines, training datasets, or content analysis at scale.
Did you know? Apify offers a free tier — you get $5 to use monthly.
Apify also has a super generous Creator plan (though you can run only your own actors) that costs just $1/month (billed $6 semi-annually) and includes a one-time $500 platform credit for your first 6 months — with up to 32 GB RAM and 32 concurrent actor runs.
