Remove Special Characters
Remove special characters from text and keep only what you need. Strip symbols, emojis, accents, or punctuation and instantly copy or download clean text.
How the Remove Special Characters Tool Works
Text copied from websites, PDFs, or exports often contains hidden symbols, emojis, or characters that cause validation and import issues.
This tool processes your input character by character and removes or keeps groups of characters based on your selected options.
The result is clean, predictable text that works better in spreadsheets, databases, forms, and systems with strict validation rules.
- Alphanumeric only: Keep just letters and numbers for strict systems.
- Optional punctuation: Preserve dots, dashes, or underscores when needed.
- Accent normalization: Convert accented characters to plain ASCII.
- Whitespace cleanup: Collapse or preserve spaces and line breaks.
When You Should Remove Special Characters
Removing special characters is useful whenever text must follow strict formatting rules or be processed by systems that don’t handle symbols well.
It also helps reduce errors caused by invisible or unsupported characters in copied text.
- Spreadsheets: Avoid broken imports and unexpected characters.
- Forms & validation: Ensure input matches allowed character sets.
- Data cleanup: Normalize messy text from external sources.
- Slugs & identifiers: Create clean, predictable strings.
FAQ
What counts as special characters?
Special characters usually include symbols outside standard letters and digits, such as !@#$, emojis, currency signs, and many punctuation marks. This tool lets you control exactly what is removed or kept.
Can I keep spaces and punctuation?
Yes. You can keep spaces, line breaks, and common punctuation like dashes, underscores, dots, and brackets depending on your needs.
Can I remove accents like é, ü, or å?
Yes. If you disable accent preservation, accented characters are normalized to their base form (for example é → e, å → a).
Does this tool remove emojis?
Yes. Emojis are treated as special characters and can be removed with a single option.
Is my text uploaded or stored?
No. All processing happens locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or logged.