About this punctuation remover
Removing punctuation is a common first step when preparing text for word counts, keyword lists, search indexes, or natural language processing, and when cleaning product names or file names. This tool sorts punctuation into eight groups so you can remove only what you need, for example quotes and brackets but not periods. It handles marks from many languages, including Chinese and Japanese punctuation and Spanish ¿ and ¡. By default it keeps the apostrophe in words such as don't and the dot or comma inside numbers such as 3.14 and 1,000.
How to remove punctuation
- Paste your text. Paste any text, or press an example. An example only fills the box.
- Pick the punctuation groups. All eight groups are selected; untick any you want to keep.
- Choose remove or replace. Remove deletes the marks; Replace with a space keeps words from running together, such as in a/b or well-known.
- Press Remove punctuation. Copy the result or download it.
Frequently asked questions
Are apostrophes in words like "don't" removed?
Not by default. An apostrophe between two letters is kept so words stay readable. Untick the keep option to remove every apostrophe, which turns "don't" into "dont".
What happens to prices and decimals such as 3.14 or 1,000?
A dot or comma between two digits is kept by default, so numbers keep their meaning. The currency sign in $12.99 is a special symbol and is removed if that group is selected.
Why would I replace punctuation with a space?
When punctuation separates words, removing it would join them: "red/blue" becomes "redblue". Replacing with a space gives "red blue". Extra spaces created this way are collapsed to one.
Does it remove Chinese and Japanese punctuation?
Yes. Full-width marks such as ，。！？、 and corner brackets 「」 are included in their matching groups.
What is in Other marks?
Any remaining punctuation or symbol that is not in the first seven groups, such as § © ° · and ‰. Letters, digits, spaces, and line breaks are never removed.