Free Markdown Previewer Guide — Write READMEs Faster
July 5, 2026
Markdown is the de facto standard for documentation — READMEs, GitHub issues, Notion pages, dev.to posts, Hugo/Jekyll blogs. AHX's free Markdown previewer renders your text live as you type, with GitHub-Flavored Markdown extensions enabled.
What's supported
- • All CommonMark spec (headings, bold, italic, lists, links, images, blockquotes)
- • GitHub-Flavored Markdown: tables, task lists, strikethrough, auto-links
- • Fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting
- • Nested lists up to 4 levels deep
- • HTML pass-through (useful for embeds)
Why write Markdown in a browser tool instead of VS Code?
Three reasons: (1) You can paste Markdown from anywhere (Slack, email, another repo) and see how it'll render on GitHub instantly. (2) You can copy the rendered HTML for pasting into a CMS that doesn't support Markdown. (3) It's a quick scratchpad when you don't want to open an editor.
Copy the rendered HTML
AHX shows both the Markdown source and the rendered preview side-by-side. A "Copy HTML" button gives you the exact HTML GitHub would generate — useful for embedding in non-Markdown contexts.