Markdown Cheat Sheet 2026

Headings

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6

Emphasis

*italic* or _italic_
**bold** or __bold__
***bold italic*** or ___bold italic___
~~strikethrough~~   (GitHub Flavored Markdown)

Paragraphs and Line Breaks

This is a paragraph.

Leave a blank line to start a new paragraph.

End a line with two spaces
to create a line break within a paragraph.

Lists

- Item one
- Item two
  - Nested item (2 or 4 spaces indent)
  - Another nested item
- Item three


* Item one
+ Item one


1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item


1. First
1. Second
1. Third

Task Lists (GitHub Flavored Markdown)

- [x] Completed task
- [ ] Incomplete task
- [ ] Another task

Links

[Link text](https://example.com)
[Link with title](https://example.com "Optional tooltip")


[Link text][ref]
[ref]: https://example.com "Optional title"


https://example.com

Images

![Alt text](image.png)
![Alt text](image.png "Optional title")


[![Alt text](image.png)](https://example.com)

Blockquotes

> This is a blockquote.
> It can span multiple lines.
>
> Separate paragraphs with a blank > line.

> Outer blockquote
>> Nested blockquote

Code

Use `backticks` for inline code.


```javascript
const greeting = 'Hello, world!';
console.log(greeting);
```

```python
def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"
```


    This is a code block
    by indentation

Tables (GitHub Flavored Markdown)

| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Cell     | Cell     | Cell     |
| Cell     | Cell     | Cell     |


| Left     | Centre   | Right    |
|:---------|:--------:|---------:|
| Left     | Centre   | Right    |

Horizontal Rules

--- (three hyphens)
*** (three asterisks)
___ (three underscores)

Escaping Characters

\*Not italic\*
\# Not a heading
\[Not a link\](url)

HTML in Markdown

<!-- Most Markdown parsers allow inline HTML -->
<strong>Bold via HTML</strong>
<br> <!-- Hard line break -->
<details>
  <summary>Click to expand</summary>
  Hidden content here.
</details>

Footnotes (Extended Markdown)

Here is a statement with a footnote.[^1]

[^1]: This is the footnote text.

GitHub Flavored Markdown Summary

GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) adds the following on top of standard Markdown:

• Tables — pipe-separated columns with header separator row
• Task lists — - [ ] and - [x] checkboxes
• Strikethrough — ~~text~~
• Fenced code blocks with language — ```python for syntax highlighting
• Autolinks — bare URLs automatically become clickable links
• Mentions — @username links to GitHub profiles
• Issue references — #123 links to GitHub issues

Where Markdown Is Used

• GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket: READMEs, issues, pull requests, wikis
• Documentation: MkDocs, Docusaurus, Hugo, Jekyll
• Note-taking: Obsidian, Notion, Typora, iA Writer, Bear
• Communication: Slack, Discord, Reddit, Stack Overflow
• AI tools: ChatGPT, Claude, and most modern LLMs output Markdown