Why AI drafts look wrong in the Gmail compose window
The Gmail composer supports rich formatting — bold, bullets, links — but it does not understand markdown. So when you paste a ChatGPT reply, the **asterisks** around emphasized words and the dash bullets show up as literal characters, and your carefully structured email reads like raw code. Gmail also faithfully keeps whatever styling is on your clipboard, which is why the other common fix — drafting in Word and pasting across — drags in Times New Roman, odd font sizes, and uneven line spacing that clash with the rest of your message.
This tool gives Gmail exactly what it wants: lightweight, email-clean rich text (HTML). Paste your draft into the editor above, click Copy, and paste into a new email — the bold, lists, and links render as native Gmail formatting, and the text inherits your normal Gmail font and spacing instead of importing Word's.
Format a ChatGPT email in three steps
- Paste your draft into the editor above. Markdown symbols, mismatched fonts, and hidden characters are cleaned out automatically.
- Review it — check the emphasis and any bullet lists, and adjust with the toolbar.
- Click Copy, open a Gmail compose window, and press Ctrl+V or Cmd+V.
Links, lists, and where it works
Links copy as real clickable anchors, so you never paste a bare URL and hope Gmail auto-links it. Bulleted and numbered lists arrive as proper lists, and bold stays bold. This is most reliable in Gmail on the web; the mobile app has limited formatting support, so compose formatted emails on desktop when it matters.
Especially useful for AI cold email
Outreach written by ChatGPT often arrives stuffed with markdown and invisible characters that make it read as obviously automated — and that is exactly what recipients and spam filters react to. Cleaning the draft here first yields a plain, human-looking email. Our cold email AI guide walks through the full workflow, from prompt to send.
Sending from Outlook instead?
If your mail client is Outlook rather than Gmail, the problems are different — a gray quote box, injected blank lines, a font override — and the Outlook text formatter handles those specifically. For any other destination, reach for the main AI text formatter.