Smart quotes to straight quotes
Paste a text and convert curly (smart) double quotes, single quotes and apostrophes to straight ASCII ones, or the other way round for publishing. Diff and count included.
Nothing is sent to a server: the text stays in your browser, the tool runs offline once the page is loaded. Ctrl+Enter runs it.
- Smart to straight maps U+201C U+201D U+201E U+201F U+00AB U+00BB U+300C U+300D to " and U+2018 U+2019 U+201A U+201B U+2039 U+203A to '
- Straight to smart opens after a space, a line start or a bracket and closes elsewhere; the apostrophe inside a word becomes U+2019
- Untick apostrophes to convert double quotes only
- Code, JSON, CSV, shell and most forms want straight quotes; print and web prose want smart ones
- Only quotes change: no other character is touched
Why quotes need converting
Word processors, phones and AI assistants type curly quotes: “like this” and ‘this’, with the apostrophe as ’. They are the right typography for prose. They are wrong, and often fatal, in code, JSON, CSV, YAML, shell commands, configuration files, SQL, and any form or API that validates its input. A curly quote pasted into a JSON file gives a parse error at a position that is easy to miss because the character looks right. This converter goes both ways: to straight for technical destinations, to smart for publishing.
What is converted
| Direction | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Smart to straight | “Hello,” she said. It’s ‘fine’. «Bonjour» „Hallo“ | "Hello," she said. It's 'fine'. "Bonjour" "Hallo" |
| Straight to smart | "Hello," she said. It's 'fine'. | “Hello,” she said. It’s ‘fine’. |
Straight to smart uses position: a quote after a space, at a line start or after an opening bracket opens; any other quote closes; a straight apostrophe between two letters becomes the typographic apostrophe U+2019. Untick apostrophes and single quotes to leave them alone, for example in code comments where 'single' means a string.
Related tools
Quotes are one of the fixes of the AI text cleaner, off by default there. Markdown debris is handled by the Markdown remover and dashes by the em dash remover.
Privacy
The conversion runs in your browser; your text is not sent, stored or logged.
Unmarker is an independent product, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
Questions people ask
Which characters count as smart quotes?
Left and right double quotes (U+201C, U+201D), low and reversed forms (U+201E, U+201F), guillemets (U+00AB, U+00BB), corner brackets (U+300C, U+300D), left and right single quotes (U+2018, U+2019), low single quote (U+201A) and single guillemets (U+2039, U+203A).
Does it change apostrophes?
Yes by default: the typographic apostrophe U+2019 becomes ' and back. Untick the option to convert double quotes only.
Can it convert straight quotes to smart quotes correctly?
In prose, yes: opening and closing are decided by position and apostrophes inside words are recognized. In code or mixed content the result may need a look; use the diff view.
Why do curly quotes break JSON or code?
Parsers only accept the ASCII quote (U+0022) and apostrophe (U+0027). U+201C looks the same but is a different character, so the string is not recognized.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser.