The Ultimate Markdown Cheat Sheet (2026)

Markdown is a plain-text format designed to be readable as-is and convertible into rich HTML. Once you know the handful of symbols it uses, you can write structured documents — notes, READMEs, blog posts, reports — faster than in any word processor. This cheat sheet collects every piece of syntax you will reach for day to day, with copy-paste examples and the rendered result next to each one.

The reference below follows the widely supported CommonMark baseline plus GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extensions, which is what most modern editors, converters, and platforms use.

Headings

Headings create the document outline. Use # followed by a space. Six levels are supported.

Use one H1 per document. Reserve H2 and H3 for the working outline.

Paragraphs and line breaks

Separate paragraphs with a blank line. A single newline inside a paragraph is treated as a soft wrap in most renderers; to force a hard line break, end the line with two spaces or a backslash.

First paragraph continues
onto a new line.

Second paragraph starts after a blank line.

Emphasis

Inline emphasis is the most-used syntax in Markdown.

Tip: prefer backticks for any short snippet a reader should copy — file names, commands, or tokens. They render in a monospaced font and prevent punctuation from being reinterpreted.

Lists

Unordered lists

Use -, +, or * followed by a space.

- Apples
- Bananas
- Cherries

Ordered lists

Use any number followed by a period.

1. Preheat the oven
2. Mix the dry ingredients
3. Bake for 30 minutes

Nested lists

Indent by two or more spaces to nest.

- Fruits
  - Apples
  - Bananas
- Vegetables
  - Carrots

Task lists (GFM)

Task lists render as checkboxes on platforms that support GFM.

Example:

- [x] Draft the outline
- [x] Write the intro
- [ ] Proofread
- [ ] Publish

Links and images

A reference-style link keeps prose clean:

Read the [docs][1] for details.

[1]: https://example.com/docs

Note: link text should describe the destination. Avoid "click here" — it hurts accessibility and SEO.

Blockquotes

Use > to quote a block of text. Nest with multiple > characters.

> Original sin is the only sin.
>> Nested quote.

Result:

Original sin is the only sin.

Nested quote.

Code

Inline code

Wrap short snippets in single backticks: `printf("hi")` renders as printf("hi").

Fenced code blocks

Use triple backticks (or tildes) and add a language tag for syntax highlighting.

```js
const sum = (a, b) => a + b;
console.log(sum(2, 3));
```

Horizontal rules

Three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores on a line create a horizontal rule.

---

Tables (GFM)

Tables use pipes and hyphens. The separator row defines column alignment.

A complete example:

| Item       | Qty | Price |
| ---------- | --: | ----: |
| Notebook   |   2 |  $4.50 |
| Pen        |  10 |  $0.99 |

GFM extras

These extensions ship with GitHub Flavored Markdown and are supported by most modern tools.

An autolink in action — just paste a URL:

Visit https://example.com for more.

Escaping special characters

When you need a literal asterisk, hash, or pipe, prefix it with a backslash.

Common characters that sometimes need escaping: \\, \`, \*, \_, \{ \}, \[ \], \( \), \<, \>, \#, \+, \-, \., \!.

Putting it together

A realistic fragment pulls all of these together:

# Release Notes v2.0

## Highlights

- **Faster startup** — cold start is now **40%** quicker.
- ~~Legacy API removed~~ (reverted in `2.0.1`).

### Tasks completed

- [x] Migrate to new parser
- [x] Update docs
- [ ] Deprecate old config format

> Upgrade with `npm i tool@2`.

Conclusion

That is the whole language in one place. Markdown's power is its smallness: a single page of syntax covers ~95% of what most people write. Bookmark this page, and when you are ready to turn your Markdown into a Word document, PDF, or HTML, paste it into the Markdown converter and download the result in one click.