Convert Markdown to HTML in Python (Batch)

Convert every Markdown file in a directory to HTML with the Python markdown library, saving each result with an .html extension.

Easy Python 3.9+ Aug 9, 2026 Automation & scripting 14 views 0 copies

markdown html batch file-conversion scripting
Requires third-party packages — install first
pip install markdown

Python code

35 lines
Python 3.9+ 
import markdown
from pathlib import Path


def convert_md_to_html(source_dir: str, dest_dir: str) -> list[str]:
    src = Path(source_dir)
    dst = Path(dest_dir)
    dst.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    converted_files = []
    for md_file in src.glob("*.md"):
        html_content = markdown.markdown(md_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
        html_file = dst / md_file.with_suffix(".html").name
        html_file.write_text(html_content, encoding="utf-8")
        converted_files.append(html_file.name)

    return converted_files


if __name__ == "__main__":
    from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory

    with TemporaryDirectory() as temp_dir:
        src = Path(temp_dir) / "markdown"
        dst = Path(temp_dir) / "html"
        src.mkdir()

        (src / "intro.md").write_text("# Hello World\n\nThis is **bold** text.", encoding="utf-8")
        (src / "notes.md").write_text("## Section\n\n- Item 1\n- Item 2", encoding="utf-8")

        results = convert_md_to_html(src, dst)

        for filename in sorted(results):
            print(f"=== {filename} ===")
            print((dst / filename).read_text(encoding="utf-8"))

Output

stdout 
=== intro.html ===
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<p>This is <strong>bold</strong> text.</p>
=== notes.html ===
<h2>Section</h2>
<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
</ul>

How it works

The markdown.markdown() function parses a Markdown string and returns the equivalent HTML. We iterate over *.md files in the source directory using Path.glob, read each file as UTF-8 text, and write the converted HTML to a new file with an .html suffix. The destination directory is created upfront with mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True), so the script works even if it doesn't exist. The function returns a list of the generated HTML filenames for easy reporting.

Common mistakes

  • Forgetting to install the `markdown` package with `pip install markdown`.
  • Reading files without `encoding='utf-8'`, causing UnicodeDecodeError on non-ASCII content.
  • Writing HTML to the same filename as the Markdown file, overwriting the source.
  • Assuming the destination directory exists — use `mkdir` first.

Variations

  1. Use `src.rglob('*.md')` to process Markdown files in subdirectories too.
  2. Add `extensions=['tables', 'fenced_code']` to the `markdown.markdown` call for extras.

Real-world use cases

  • Building a static site generator that turns Markdown documentation into HTML pages.
  • Converting batches of README or guide files into a format ready for email or a CMS import.
  • Automating report generation where analysts write Markdown and need HTML for a dashboard.

Sponsored

Run locally

This sample needs third-party packages, so it cannot run in the browser IDE. Copy the code above, install the packages shown at the top, then run it in your own Python environment.

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