How do I show a backslash in Markdown?

Write two backslashes (\\) to display one, or put the text in backticks, where a single backslash is shown as typed.

Does escaping work the same in every Markdown app?

In CommonMark-based apps (GitHub, GitLab, VS Code, Obsidian, most site generators) yes. Chat apps such as Slack and WhatsApp use their own simplified formatting and may not support backslash escapes.

Markdown Escape Characters: How to Show *, _, # and | Literally

Q: How do I write an asterisk in Markdown without making italics?

Escape it with a backslash (\*), put spaces around it (5 * 3), or wrap it in backticks as code. Any of the three shows a literal asterisk.

By the MDConverter team · Updated October 10, 2026 · 3 min read

Quick answer

Put a backslash (\) in front of a character to make Markdown show it literally: \*not italic\* renders as not italic with the asterisks visible. Any ASCII punctuation character can be escaped, and inside code nothing needs escaping at all. Use the tool below to escape a whole piece of text at once, or to remove escapes from text you copied.

Markdown escape tool

Text to show literally

Escaped Markdown

\# Price: $5 \*each\* — 50% off\_today\_ \| 1. Not a list

Runs in your browser. “Only what is needed” escapes characters that would change the formatting where they are; “Every symbol” escapes all Markdown punctuation.

Escaping with a backslash

A backslash before a punctuation character turns off its Markdown meaning. The backslash itself disappears from the output.

Markdown

\*This is not italic\*

\# This is not a heading

1986\. A great year — not a numbered list.

Price: 5 \* 3 \= 15

Result

*This is not italic*

# This is not a heading

1986. A great year — not a numbered list.

Price: 5 * 3 = 15

Escaping = is harmless even though it rarely needs it — unnecessary escapes still render correctly.

Characters you can escape

CommonMark allows a backslash before any ASCII punctuation character. These are the ones that matter in practice:

Character	Name	Why it may need escaping
`\`	backslash	Starts an escape itself
`	backtick	Starts inline code
`*`	asterisk	Bold, italic, bullet
`_`	underscore	Bold, italic (at word boundaries)
`{ }`	curly braces	Attribute syntax in some renderers
`[ ]`	square brackets	Links, images, task lists
`( )`	parentheses	Link URLs
`#`	hash	Heading at the start of a line
`+` `-`	plus, minus	Bullets at the start of a line; `---` rules
`.`	dot	`1.` numbered list at the start of a line
`!`	exclamation mark	`![` starts an image
`\|`	pipe	Table column separator (inside a table, even code needs `\|`)
`~`	tilde	Strikethrough, code fences
`<` `>`	angle brackets	HTML tags, autolinks, `>` quotes

Letters, digits and non-ASCII characters cannot be escaped — a backslash before them is shown as a normal backslash.

When you do not need to escape

Inside code. Text in backticks or a code block is never interpreted, so **kwargs and #include need no escapes.
Symbols surrounded by spaces. 5 * 3 and a - b are not emphasis or bullets.
Underscores inside words. snake_case_name stays as written in CommonMark and GitHub.
# without a following space. #hashtag is not a heading.

Escaping a pipe inside a table

In a table cell, | ends the cell, so write \| instead. On GitHub this works even inside inline code in a table.

Markdown

| Operator | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `a \|\| b` | logical OR |
| \| | pipe character |

Result

Operator	Meaning
`a \|\| b`	logical OR
\|	pipe character

More table-specific cases are covered on MarkdownTables.com: escaping pipes in Markdown tables.

HTML entities as an alternative

Where HTML is allowed, character references also work and are sometimes clearer: * for *, _ for _, | for |, < for <, & for &,   for a non-breaking space.

Seeing backslashes in copied AI text?

Text copied from ChatGPT, Notion exports or some converters sometimes contains escapes such as \* or \_ that show up in plain-text apps. Paste it into the tool above and choose Remove escapes, or run it through Remove asterisks from ChatGPT text, which removes escapes along with the rest of the Markdown.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Problem	Fix
The backslash shows in the output	You escaped a character that cannot be escaped (a letter or digit), or the text is inside code where escapes are not processed.
A Windows path lost its backslashes	Escape each backslash (`C:\\Users`) or put the path in backticks: `C:\Users`.
Escape ignored in Slack or Discord	Chat apps implement their own subset; Discord supports `\*`, Slack does not support backslash escapes reliably.

Tools for this

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Escaping special characters

Comprehensive answers to common technical, formatting, security, and compatibility questions.