Overview
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.
Endpoint
One host, one path per API. The block below shows this call in four languages; every one of them is the same HTTP request. Making requests covers the timeouts, retries and parameter rules that apply to all of them. The SDKs wrap the same call in a typed client.
curl -X POST https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext \
-H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
-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>"
}'const res = await fetch('https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'x-api-key': 'your_api_key_here',
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"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>"
}),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data);import requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext",
headers={"x-api-key": "your_api_key_here"},
json={
"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>"
},
timeout=15,
)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json()["data"])package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"strings"
)
func main() {
body := strings.NewReader(`{
"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>"
}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/htmltotext", body)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "your_api_key_here")
res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer res.Body.Close()
out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
fmt.Println(string(out))
}Replace your_api_key_here with the key from your dashboard. When the inputs arrive as a list rather than one at a time, batch requests run up to 200 of them through this same API in a single call.
Authentication
Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — there is no token exchange and no per-endpoint scope to configure. Authentication covers creating, rotating and revoking keys.
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.
Parameters
Sent as JSON in the request body. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
htmlRequired | string | The HTML to convert to text |
Response
Every API returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape. Response format covers the envelope, the other output formats and how premium fields are withheld.
{
"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 |
Errors
Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change. Error handling covers the full status list and which of them are worth retrying.
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
400 | Input was rejected | Read error; it names the parameter. |
401 | Key missing or invalid | Check the header name and the key value. |
403 | Key valid, but not permitted | A key restriction or IP allow-list; see key scoping. |
429 | Rate limited, or out of credits | Read error to tell them apart; see rate limits. |
Use cases
- 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.
Other ways to use HTML to Text
Set up HTML to Text on APIVerve, or reach the same source a different way. Your APIVerve account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Related
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