Confluence to Markdown: 4 Ways to Export, Compared

Short answer: Confluence Cloud can export pages to PDF and Word, and spaces to HTML, XML, CSV or PDF, but not to Markdown. For one page, you can copy the content into a Markdown editor or convert the HTML with Pandoc. For page trees, whole spaces or regular exports, use a Confluence Markdown exporter app such as the free Markdown Exporter for Confluence, which keeps the hierarchy, attachments and links between pages.

Teams want Markdown out of Confluence for a few reasons: moving docs into a Git repository, publishing with a static site generator, building an Obsidian vault, feeding documentation to AI tools, or keeping a plain-text backup that doesn't depend on any one vendor. Each method below gets you .md files. They differ in how much of the page survives and how much work it takes.

What Confluence exports on its own

Before reaching for a tool, it helps to know what Confluence Cloud gives you:

Export	Where	Formats
One page	••• menu on the page, Export	PDF, Word
A whole space	Space settings, Export space	HTML, XML, CSV, PDF

None of these is Markdown. The space HTML export is the closest starting point, because HTML converts to Markdown reasonably well, but it is a space admin task, it exports everything in the space, and the conversion is still on you. If you are curious how Confluence's own markup relates to Markdown, see Confluence wiki markup vs Markdown.

Option 1: Copy and paste

Open the page, select the content, and paste it into an editor that converts rich text to Markdown (many Markdown editors and note apps do this on paste).

Keeps: headings, bold and italic, simple lists, links.

Loses: images (they paste as links to Confluence, which need a login), tables with merged cells, panels, code block languages, and the page hierarchy. Links to other Confluence pages still point at Confluence.

Use it for: one or two short pages, once.

Option 2: The REST API and Pandoc

For a scripted export without an app, fetch the page body with the Confluence REST API and convert it.

1. Create an API token for your Atlassian account.
2. Fetch a page's rendered HTML:

curl -s -u [e-mail]:$API_TOKEN \
  "https://your-site.atlassian.net/wiki/api/v2/pages/123456?body-format=export_view" \
  | jq -r '.body.export_view.value' > page.html

1. Convert it to GitHub-flavored Markdown:

pandoc -f html -t gfm page.html -o page.md

To export a page tree, list the children with /wiki/api/v2/pages/{id}/children, repeat for each page, and build the folders yourself.

Keeps: text, headings, lists, simple tables, code blocks.

Loses or needs extra code: attachments and images (a separate download per file, then rewriting the image links), links between pages (they still point at Confluence URLs), panels and other macros (they come out as raw HTML or vanish), and any front matter you want.

Use it for: developers who want full control and don't mind maintaining a script. Budget time for the edge cases; they are most of the work.

Option 3: Markdown Exporter for Confluence

Markdown Exporter for Confluence is a free app built only for export. It runs on Atlassian Forge, so your content never leaves Atlassian.

Open it from any page's ••• menu with Export to Markdown, or from Apps → Markdown Exporter to start from a space. Tick the pages you want in the page tree (ticking a parent selects its children) and click Export Selected.

What you get:

• A ZIP that mirrors the page tree, with one .md file per page, or every page in one Markdown file if you prefer a single document
• Attachments in an attachments/ folder, linked with relative paths so images still show after you unzip
• Links between pages rewritten as relative .md paths, or as [[wikilinks]] in Obsidian mode
• YAML front matter with title, author, date, space key and page ID, plus your own fields, ready for static site generators
• Panels as callouts such as > [!NOTE], or as blockquotes or plain text
• Filename patterns with {title}, {date} and {id}
• A Markdown preview of any page before you export

For bigger jobs, released on 26 October 2026:

• Background exports. Exports over 100 pages or 100 attachments run on Atlassian's servers, so you can close the page and download the result later from My exports. One export can include up to 2,000 pages.
• Scheduled exports. Export a space or page tree every week or every month. Each run attaches a dated ZIP or .md file to an archive page, or keeps it in My exports, and can @mention people so Confluence emails them. That makes a regular Markdown backup of a space a one-time setup.
• Export API. Start an export from a CI pipeline or script with one HTTP request and an API token, and attach the result to a page. There is also an OAuth REST API that returns Markdown directly, which suits docs-as-code workflows.

Use it for: page trees and whole spaces, moving docs to Git or a static site, Obsidian, and any export you want to repeat.

Option 4: Markdown Importer's built-in export

If your team also brings Markdown into Confluence, Markdown Importer for Confluence does both directions in one app. Its Export to Markdown action exports a single page, a page with its children, or a whole space as a ZIP, with the hierarchy kept as folders and attachments linked by relative paths.

It doesn't have the front matter, Obsidian mode, filename patterns, schedules or APIs of the standalone exporter, so pick it when two-way sync matters more than export options. The step-by-step export guide walks through it.

Side by side

	Copy and paste	REST API + Pandoc	Markdown Exporter	Markdown Importer export
Price	Free	Free, your time	Free	Paid, free up to 10 users
Page trees and spaces	No	With your own script	Yes	Yes
Images and attachments	No	Extra code	Yes, relative links	Yes, relative links
Links between pages	Point at Confluence	Point at Confluence	Relative .md or wikilinks	Relative links
Panels	Lost	Raw HTML	Callouts, blockquotes or text	GitHub callouts
YAML front matter	No	Your own code	Yes	No
One combined .md file	Yes	Your own code	Yes	No
Schedules	No	Your own cron job	Weekly or monthly	No
Automation	No	Yes	REST API and Export API	No

Choosing a Confluence Markdown exporter

Whichever tool you pick, test it on one real page tree before a big move, and check:

1. Do images survive? Unzip the export somewhere without a Confluence login and open a page with screenshots.
2. Do links between pages work offline? They should point at other .md files, not at Confluence URLs.
3. What happens to macros? Panels, expand sections, status labels and code blocks are where exports differ most.
4. Does it scale? Try your largest space, not your smallest.
5. Where does the content go? An app that runs on Atlassian Forge keeps the export inside Atlassian; an externally hosted app sends your pages to its own servers. See our Forge security checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Can Confluence export to Markdown natively?

No. Confluence Cloud exports pages to PDF and Word, and spaces to HTML, XML, CSV or PDF. To get Markdown, convert one of those or use a Marketplace app.

What is the best way to export a whole Confluence space to Markdown?

Use an exporter app that keeps the page tree. In Markdown Exporter, open Apps → Markdown Exporter, pick the space and its top page, tick the pages and export. Large spaces run in the background and arrive in My exports.

Can I export Confluence to Markdown automatically?

Yes. Markdown Exporter can export a space or page tree every week or month on a schedule, and its Export API lets a CI job start an export with one request. With your own script, you can do the same with the REST API, Pandoc and a cron job.

Are images included when I export Confluence to Markdown?

With copy-paste, no. With a script, only if you download each attachment and rewrite the links. Markdown Exporter puts attachments in an attachments/ folder in the ZIP and links them with relative paths.

Is there a free Confluence Markdown exporter?

Yes. Markdown Exporter for Confluence is free on the Atlassian Marketplace and works on Confluence Cloud.

Can I convert Markdown back into Confluence later?

Yes. Markdown Importer for Confluence imports .md files, folders or a ZIP as a page tree. See how to import Markdown into Confluence.

Try it

Install Markdown Exporter for Confluence from the Atlassian Marketplace, open any page's ••• menu, choose Export to Markdown, and export a small page tree to see what you get. The quick start covers the rest.