A GitHub repo page is the README wrapped in 80% UI: file tree, branch picker, contributor avatars, language stats, sidebar widgets, "About" panel. The README itself is already Markdown, but copying it from the rendered page brings the chrome along — and wiki/issue/discussion pages aren't even raw Markdown to begin with. Our converter extracts just the content from any GitHub URL: rendered README, wiki page, issue body, discussion thread.
What gets extracted from each GitHub surface
Repo home (github.com/owner/repo): the rendered README only — no file tree, no language bar, no contributor row. The output is what you'd get if the maintainer had emailed you their README.md. Wiki pages (/wiki/PageName): the page body with its headings and links rewritten to relative paths so the wiki archive browses offline. Issues and pull requests: the title becomes # H1, the body of the OP becomes the content, comments become sub-sections with author and timestamp attribution. Discussions: same shape as issues, with the accepted answer marked when present.
Why convert what's "already Markdown"
READMEs are Markdown in the source repo, but the page you visit at github.com/owner/repo is HTML rendered by GitHub's own renderer. Copy-pasting that rendered HTML brings emoji shortcuts as Unicode glyphs, task-list checkboxes as <input> elements, and admonition syntax as styled divs — none of which round-trip to plain Markdown cleanly. Hitting "Raw" gives you the source but loses GitHub's rendered improvements (resolved relative links, embedded images, expanded shortcodes). The converter splits the difference: the rendered output, normalised back to clean GFM. If the repo's real docs are stored as PDFs in the repo, also try PDF to Markdown.
Before / After
Before (PDF):
[GitHub repo page HTML — full UI]
<header class="Header">… nav, sign-in, search …</header>
<aside class="repository-sidebar">… About, releases, contributors avatars …</aside>
<div class="file-navigation">… branch picker, file tree …</div>
<article class="markdown-body">
<h1>my-awesome-lib</h1>
<p>A small library for doing X.</p>
<h2>Install</h2>
<pre><code class="language-bash">npm install my-awesome-lib</code></pre>
</article>
<footer>… 40 footer links …</footer>
After (Markdown):
# my-awesome-lib
A small library for doing X.
## Install
```bash
npm install my-awesome-lib
```
Frequently asked questions
Can I just hit the "Raw" button to get the README as Markdown?
For the repo root README, yes — but Raw shows the source before GitHub's renderer resolves relative image paths, emoji shortcodes, and expanded references. The conversion gives you the rendered output normalised back to clean GFM, which is closer to what readers actually saw. Raw is also useless for wikis, issues, and discussions — none of which expose a Raw view.
Does this work on private repos?
The MDisBetter web tool fetches anonymously, so private repos return 404. For private content the right path is a self-hosted script: a requests session with your GitHub PAT in the header (Authorization: token <pat>), pull the rendered HTML from api.github.com/repos/.../readme (returns Markdown directly) or /wiki/... for wiki pages, then post-process. The GitHub REST API gives you the README as Markdown without any HTML conversion step needed.
How are issue comments and reactions preserved?
Each comment becomes a sub-section with author and timestamp as a small header line, then the comment body. Reactions are summarised compactly when present (e.g. 👍 12 · 🎉 3) under the comment, useful for grasping community sentiment without bloating the output.
Are GitHub-flavoured task lists and tables preserved?
Yes — task lists (- [x] done, - [ ] todo) round-trip to standard GFM checkbox syntax. Tables come through as pipe tables. Code blocks keep their language hint. Anything specific to GitHub's renderer (e.g. ::: warning admonitions) is normalised to the closest plain GFM equivalent (blockquotes with bold prefix).
Can I convert an entire repo's wiki at once?
The MDisBetter web tool is one URL at a time, but a wiki is just a Git repo of its own — clone it directly via git clone https://github.com/owner/repo.wiki.git and you have every page as raw Markdown without conversion. Use the web tool for individual wiki pages when you don't want the whole archive, or for issue/discussion pages where the cloning trick doesn't apply.
Your AI doesn't read PDFs directly. It first has to extract the text, decode the layout, ignore the metadata — before it can even start answering. A Markdown file removes all of those steps. Your AI reads it instantly. So you get faster responses, more accurate results, and zero information lost along the way.
Size-wise, it's 100 to 500 times lighter for the same content. A 15 MB PDF becomes a 30 KB .md file. So your AI knowledge base can hold hundreds of documents instead of a handful.
MDisBetter brings 19 free tools together for that — documents, videos, audio, web pages and prompts.
How does it work?
Drop a PDF, a video, an audio file or a URL. MDisBetter extracts the content and gives you a clean Markdown file. So you can send it to your AI, add it to your project files, or store it in your knowledge base — without losing anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert a PDF to Markdown for free?
Upload your PDF to MDisBetter, click Convert, and get structured Markdown in seconds. No signup, no installation — it works directly in your browser. The free plan includes 50 credits per month.
Why is Markdown better than PDF for AI?
Markdown reduces token usage by up to 95% compared to PDF. AI models like ChatGPT and Claude process Markdown far more efficiently because it contains only content structure — no fonts, no layout data, no binary overhead.
What file types can MDisBetter convert?
MDisBetter converts PDF, Word (.docx), plain text, YouTube videos (transcript), audio files (MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, FLAC, WEBM), and any web page URL to clean Markdown.
Is MDisBetter free?
Yes, free to start. The free plan includes 50 credits per month. All processing happens securely — your files are never stored.
Can I extract a YouTube transcript as Markdown?
Yes. Paste the YouTube video URL, click Convert, and get the full transcript structured as Markdown with headings and timestamps. Perfect for feeding video content to AI tools.
PDF → Markdown
Faithful and structured conversion of your documents
Text to MD, EPUB to MD, MD to PDF, MD Cleaner, Merger, Chunker, Token Counter, Context Builder
Free
—
Word to MD
0.5 credit
per page
Excel to MD
0.5 credit
per conversion
Single URL Scrape
0.5 credit
per call
Site Crawl
1 credit
per page
Translate
1 credit
per 10 000 chars (min 1, free re-translation on cache hit)
Prompt Optimizer
1 credit
per call
System Prompt Generator
1 credit
per call
Audio to MD
2 credits
per minute
Video to MD
2 credits
per minute
YouTube to MD
2 credits
per minute
Image OCR
4 credits
per image (0 on cache hit)
PDF to MD
4 credits
per page
PPTX to MD
4 credits
per slide
Questions
Yes! You get 50 credits every month to use any tool. Basic tools like MD Cleaner or Token Counter cost just 0.5 credit per use. When you run out, credits reset the next month or you can upgrade for more.
Wait for your monthly reset or upgrade to a higher plan. Credits renew on your billing date each month.
Yes, cancel anytime with one click. No questions asked. You keep access until the end of your billing period.
Pro gives you 30,000 credits for $29 — that's 30x more credits than Starter for just 3x the price. Every credit costs less, so you get far more value per dollar.