Can I put a link or formatting in a footnote?

Yes. Footnote text supports normal inline Markdown: links, bold, italics and code.

What is the difference between a footnote and a reference-style link?

A reference-style link ([text][label]) is a hyperlink whose URL is defined elsewhere; nothing appears at the bottom of the page. A footnote creates a numbered note that readers can jump to and back from.

How to Add Footnotes in Markdown

By the MDConverter team · Updated October 10, 2026 · 2 min read

Quick answer

Add a footnote with a marker in the text — [^1] — and a definition anywhere in the document starting with the same marker and a colon: [^1]: The note text. The renderer numbers the notes in order, links each marker to its note and collects all notes at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are an extension: GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, Pandoc and most site generators support them; strict CommonMark does not.

Footnote syntax

The label inside [^…] can be a number or a word — the output is numbered by order of appearance either way.

Markdown

Markdown was released in 2004.[^1] CommonMark followed ten years later.[^spec]

[^1]: By John Gruber, with help from Aaron Swartz.
[^spec]: See https://spec.commonmark.org for the full specification.

Result

Markdown was released in 2004.¹ CommonMark followed ten years later.²

Footnotes

By John Gruber, with help from Aaron Swartz. ↩
See https://spec.commonmark.org for the full specification. ↩

The definitions can go anywhere — directly after the paragraph or all at the end of the file — and always render at the bottom.

Long notes with several paragraphs

Indent follow-up lines by four spaces to keep them inside the same note.

Markdown

This claim needs context.[^context]

[^context]: The first paragraph of the note.

    A second paragraph, indented four spaces, stays in the note.

Result

This claim needs context.¹

Footnotes

The first paragraph of the note.

A second paragraph, indented four spaces, stays in the note. ↩

Where footnotes work — and what to do where they do not

Footnotes come from PHP Markdown Extra and Pandoc and were adopted by GitHub in 2021. If your platform does not support them, use a numbered reference in brackets and a "Notes" list at the end, or link the source inline.

For academic writing with real citations ([@smith2020] and a bibliography), use Pandoc with citeproc — it builds the reference list in any citation style.

Footnotes when converting

Markdown to HTML and Markdown to PDF render footnote markers and the notes list. Word's native footnotes are a separate feature: if you need real Word footnotes (numbered at the foot of each page), Pandoc's markdown → docx conversion creates them. Going the other way, LaTeX to Markdown converts \footnote{} commands.

Footnote support by app

App	Supported	Notes
GitHub	Yes	Files, issues and PRs. Not supported in GitHub wikis.
GitLab	Yes	Supported in GitLab Flavored Markdown.
Obsidian	Yes	Also supports inline notes `^[like this]`.
Pandoc, MkDocs, Hugo, Jekyll	Yes	Standard in their Markdown dialects (MkDocs via the footnotes extension).
VS Code preview	No	Not in the built-in preview; extensions add it.
Reddit, Discord, Slack	No	Shown as literal `[^1]` text.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Problem	Fix
Footnote marker shows as `[^1]`	The renderer does not support footnotes, or the definition is missing. Every marker needs a matching `[^1]:` line.
Second paragraph of a note appears in the main text	Indent it by four spaces.
Footnotes vanished on a GitHub wiki page	Wikis do not support footnotes; use numbered references instead.

Tools for this

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions About Footnotes

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

No. Labels are only identifiers; the renderer numbers footnotes 1, 2, 3 in the order the markers appear. You can use words like [^source] to keep them easy to manage.

Markdown Links: Every Way to Add a Link — Inline and reference links, links to headings and files, email links and new-tab links.
Markdown Flavors: CommonMark vs GitHub Flavored Markdown and More — Why the same Markdown renders differently, and what each major flavor adds.
How to Write Comments in Markdown — Leave notes in a Markdown file that never appear on the rendered page.

Sources

← All Markdown lessons · Markdown cheat sheet