Guide · checked against Atlassian's, pandoc's and each tool's own documentation, 15 October 2026
How to convert Confluence to Markdown
Confluence can't export to Markdown. Atlassian documents Word and PDF exports for single pages, and PDF, HTML, XML and (on Cloud) CSV for spaces. To get Markdown you either convert one of those exports, use an open source exporter that reads your pages through Confluence's API, or use a Marketplace app. If you're really moving to another wiki, importing the HTML export directly usually keeps more. Here's what each route gives you.
| Route | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| HTML export, then pandoc | A few pages, or a one-off conversion you can check by hand | One file at a time; no page tree; some content won't convert cleanly |
| Open source API exporter | Whole spaces into a Git repo or a Markdown notes app | Needs an API token; check what each tool says it supports |
| Marketplace app | Teams that prefer an app installed in Confluence | Price, and what data the app can access |
| Import the HTML export into another wiki | Moving to a new wiki, not to files | What the new wiki's importer keeps |
Does Confluence have a Markdown export?
No. Atlassian's Cloud documentation lists Word and PDF for a single page, and PDF, CSV, HTML and XML for a space. Its Data Center documentation lists PDF and Word for pages, and HTML, PDF and XML for spaces. Atlassian's Cloud export page doesn't list Markdown; its Markdown page covers editor shortcuts for formatting text as you type. How to run each export: our guide to exporting Confluence and how to download a Confluence space.
Sources: Cloud export docs, Data Center export docs and Cloud keyboard shortcuts, markdown and autocomplete, Atlassian.
Option 1: HTML export, then pandoc
Pandoc is a free, open source document converter. Its manual lists HTML and Word (docx) as input formats and several Markdown flavours as output, including GitHub-Flavored Markdown (gfm) and CommonMark. So you can export a space to HTML, then convert each page file, for example with pandoc -f html -t gfm page.html -o page.md.
Expect to tidy up. Pandoc's manual warns that conversions from formats richer than its own Markdown "can be expected to be lossy", and that complex tables may not fit its document model. In practice, with a Confluence export:
- Each page is its own file. Pandoc writes one output file per run (given several inputs, it joins them into one), so you'd run it once per page, and the page tree isn't rebuilt as folders. You arrange the Markdown files yourself.
- Attachments stay where the export put them, in
download/attachments/<page ID>(the folder Atlassian documents for HTML exports). Links and images in the Markdown point at those paths, so keep the folder alongside the files or fix the paths. - Expect macros to survive only as the HTML they rendered to. Simple ones may come through as text or tables; anything pandoc can't map is changed or dropped, so check pages that use macros. Pandoc's manual documents a
raw_htmlextension (off by default for HTML input) if you'd rather keep that HTML in the Markdown; the manual cautions against using it on untrusted HTML. - Comments, page history and permissions: Atlassian's Cloud docs say page comments aren't currently included in the HTML export; on Data Center they're optional. Neither doc says the HTML export carries page history or permissions.
If you need the page source rather than rendered HTML, with macros as definitions, in our understanding an XML export holds each page in Confluence's storage format (see our storage format guide); pandoc doesn't read that format, so it needs its own converter.
Option 2: an open source exporter that uses Confluence's API
These read your pages directly from Confluence with an API token, rather than from an export file. Two with recent commits on their GitHub pages as of the date above:
- confluence-markdown-exporter (MIT licence). Exports pages, with their descendants, to Markdown through the Atlassian API. Its documentation describes saving attachments and images locally and writing parent pages as an index file in a folder. It says it has been tested on Confluence Cloud and Confluence Server 8.5, and that it "is not tested extensively".
- atlcli (Apache 2.0 licence). A command-line tool for Confluence and Jira that syncs Confluence pages as Markdown, in both directions. Its README lists Cloud and Data Center support and says the page hierarchy and attachments stay part of the sync. It can also write changes back to Confluence, so for a one-way export use an account that can only read.
Follow each project's own README to install and run it, test it on a small space first, and check what access its API token gives it. Neither is affiliated with us, and we haven't tested them.
Option 3: a Marketplace app
The Atlassian Marketplace lists several apps that export Confluence pages to Markdown, including some that bulk-export with attachments. Before installing one, check its price, which Confluence editions it supports, whether it runs on Atlassian's own platform or sends your content to the vendor's servers, and what its listing says about data access. We don't recommend a particular app.
When Markdown is the wrong target
If you're converting to Markdown only to load it into another wiki, check whether that wiki imports Confluence's HTML export directly; that usually keeps more of the structure. Docmost, the open source wiki we host, is one example: its documentation says its Confluence import takes the HTML export zip and keeps the page tree, internal page links, images and attachments. Docmost's pricing page lists that importer under its paid Business plan. Its user guide also describes importing Markdown and HTML files, without the Confluence-specific handling. Our Confluence to Docmost guide compares the two. Docmost can also export a page or a whole space as Markdown, so a Docmost wiki can be a step on the way to Markdown files.
Source: Docmost import and export documentation and Docmost pricing.
Whichever route you take, keep your original export, and your Confluence site, until you've checked the converted pages.
Want the space in a wiki instead?
Tablewide runs Docmost at one flat price with unlimited users, from $49 a month, and you can export your pages as Markdown or HTML at any time. The free preview takes the HTML export of one space and puts it into a private Docmost wiki, with no card; it's deleted after 7 days unless you subscribe. Comments, page history and permissions don't come across from a Confluence export, and formatting, macros and attachments may not transfer exactly. Through the form, we aim to have your preview ready within two business days of your upload, on a best-efforts basis. The preview terms say where your export is stored and when it's deleted.
Organizations in the EEA, UK or Switzerland: please use the form and don't upload an export. We'll build your preview from your public pages instead, or tell you if that isn't possible (preview terms).
Get a free preview How to export Confluence
Atlassian and Confluence are trademarks of Atlassian. Docmost is a trademark of its developers. Other product names belong to their owners. Tablewide is not affiliated with or endorsed by Atlassian, Docmost or the tools named above. Details are summarised from each project's published documentation on the date above and can change.