GitHub README viewer: paste or open a README, see a GFM preview and set a base URL for relative links. Nothing is fetched from GitHub.
What is GitHub README Viewer?
GitHub README Viewer is a free online tool that previews a README written in GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) in your browser. Paste or open the README, set a base URL for relative links and read the rendered page. Nothing is fetched from GitHub.
What it supports
- GFM: tables, task lists, strikethrough and fenced code.
- Base URL (optional): an http or https URL without credentials that resolves relative links such as docs/guide.md. Without it, relative links remain unavailable.
Good to know
- The preview is approximate and is not the GitHub renderer, so features that GitHub adds on top of GFM may look different or not appear.
- Images, badges and other files the README points to are not loaded: an image appears as its alt text, and the tool notes the missing files.
- A README at a remote address is not fetched. Paste or open its text instead. This tool is not affiliated with GitHub.
How do I use GitHub README Viewer?
- Paste the README text or open the file.
- If you want relative links to resolve, enter a base URL.
- Read the Preview and the Unavailable links and images list. This panel does not offer Copy or Download.
Example
A README with a badge and a relative link, and the base URL https://github.com/acme/my-app/blob/main/.
# my-app

See [the guide](docs/guide.md).The link to docs/guide.md becomes https://github.com/acme/my-app/blob/main/docs/guide.md, and the badge appears as its alt text, Build status.
Limits and privacy
Limits
- Text: up to 2,000,000 bytes of UTF-8 (about 2 MB). Accented letters and emoji take more than one byte each. Larger input or generated text is rejected.
Is my content sent to a server?
No. Your content and files are processed in your browser and never uploaded. OCR and PDF reading download processing files, including OCR language data and the PDF worker, from this same site only when those tools run; no content goes to third parties. Markdown previews show external images as alt text instead of loading them.
Copying puts a result on your clipboard and downloading saves it as a file, but only when you press the button. The file is created in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
For the full details, see the Privacy Policy
Related tools and pages
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