Special Characters Remover
Strip punctuation and special characters from any block of text.
Free browser-based tool · Runs 100% on your device · Last updated
What is the Special Characters Remover?
The free Special Characters Remover strips non-alphanumeric characters from your text, with two optional toggles: Keep punctuation (preserve . , ! ? etc.) and Keep numbers (preserve 0–9). It is ideal for sanitising user input, preparing text for machine-learning pipelines, or cleaning data exported from legacy systems.
- → Sanitise form input by removing symbols that break database queries or APIs.
- → Clean product titles or filenames by stripping special characters before saving.
- → Prepare training data for NLP models that require plain alphanumeric text.
- → Remove currency symbols, dashes, and brackets from financial exports.
- → Strip non-ASCII characters from text before encoding it for transmission.
How to Use the Special Characters Remover
- 1 Paste your text into the input area.
- 2 Toggle Keep punctuation on if you want to preserve common punctuation marks like periods, commas, exclamation marks, and question marks.
- 3 Toggle Keep numbers on if digits should survive the clean.
- 4 The output updates instantly — all other non-alphanumeric characters are removed.
- 5 Copy the cleaned result with the Copy button.
Key Features
- 🚫 Special char removalStrips symbols, diacritics, and non-alphanumeric characters in one pass.
- 🔤 Punctuation opt-inOptionally keep common punctuation marks with one toggle.
- 🔢 Number preservationKeep digits intact while stripping everything else.
- 🔒 100% in-browserNo file uploads — your text stays private on your device.
Example Usage
Hello, World! Price: $9.99 — Order #1234 (Ref: XY-78).
Hello World Price 999 Order 1234 Ref XY78 (no punctuation, keep numbers) Hello, World! Price: 9.99 — Order 1234 (Ref: XY78). (keep punctuation + numbers)
Frequently Asked Questions about the Special Characters Remover
- What is the Special Characters Remover?
- The Special Characters Remover is a free online tool that lets you strip punctuation and special characters from any block of text. It runs entirely in your browser, so there is nothing to install and nothing is uploaded to a server.
- Is the Special Characters Remover free?
- Yes — the Special Characters Remover is completely free, with no account, subscription, signup, or usage limits.
- Is my data uploaded or stored?
- No. The Special Characters Remover processes everything locally in your browser. Your input is never uploaded, saved, or shared with any server.
- Does the Special Characters Remover work offline?
- Yes. Once the page has finished loading, the Special Characters Remover works without an internet connection.
- Which browsers does the Special Characters Remover work in?
- The Special Characters Remover works in all modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge — no plugins or extensions needed.
- Does this remove accented characters like é, ñ, or ü?
- Yes. Accented and diacritical characters are treated as special characters and removed unless you keep punctuation or numbers.
- What counts as "punctuation" in the keep-punctuation mode?
- The tool preserves: period, comma, exclamation mark, question mark, apostrophe, colon, semicolon, hyphen, and parentheses.
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