EML to Plain text converter

EML to TXT extracts one message into a small header block followed by the parser's preferred plain text body.

Converted with Mail engine · input deleted within 24 h
Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

Element	Result	What happens
Header block	Kept	The output began with Subject, From, To, and Date labels before a blank line and the message body.
Subject decoding	Kept	The encoded non-ASCII subject decoded correctly to Q3 report – café approval in the TXT output.
Address rendering	Kept	From and To now render as display name plus mailbox, and two To recipients were comma-joined in one header line.
Cc header	Lost	The retest included a Cc recipient, but the TXT header block still did not include any Cc line.
Date formatting	Changed	The original email date header was converted to an ISO timestamp rather than preserving the raw header string.
Multipart alternatives	Changed	The text/plain part won over the HTML part, so the TXT output used the plain fallback instead of stripping the rich body.
Quoted-printable body	Kept	Quoted-printable content decoded to readable UTF-8 text, including the café word in the approval sentence.
Inline images	Lost	The CID image part and its alt text from the HTML alternative did not appear in the plain text result.
Attachments	Lost	The notes.txt attachment was not listed, extracted, or summarized in the TXT conversion output.

Header block Kept
The output began with Subject, From, To, and Date labels before a blank line and the message body.
Subject decoding Kept
The encoded non-ASCII subject decoded correctly to Q3 report – café approval in the TXT output.
Address rendering Kept
From and To now render as display name plus mailbox, and two To recipients were comma-joined in one header line.
Cc header Lost
The retest included a Cc recipient, but the TXT header block still did not include any Cc line.
Date formatting Changed
The original email date header was converted to an ISO timestamp rather than preserving the raw header string.
Multipart alternatives Changed
The text/plain part won over the HTML part, so the TXT output used the plain fallback instead of stripping the rich body.
Quoted-printable body Kept
Quoted-printable content decoded to readable UTF-8 text, including the café word in the approval sentence.
Inline images Lost
The CID image part and its alt text from the HTML alternative did not appear in the plain text result.
Attachments Lost
The notes.txt attachment was not listed, extracted, or summarized in the TXT conversion output.

Sample conversions

Invoice approval sample

Input: Plain-text repository sample with invoice #4471 subject, From and To headers, UTC date, and a five-line body.
Output: 235-byte TXT with labeled headers, ISO date, Dana <accounts@northwind.example>, billing@example.com, and the original line breaks in the body.

Multipart email text preference

Input: Multipart EML with decoded non-ASCII subject, text and HTML alternatives, Cc recipient, CID image, unsafe HTML body, and a notes.txt attachment.
Output: 287-byte TXT using the plain-text alternative, formatted From and comma-joined To headers, no Cc line, the café approval sentence, signature, and no attachment text.

A real EML → Plain text run

We converted our EML sample (299 B) with Mail engine on 2026-09-11. It took 11 ms and produced a 235 B Plain text file, 21% smaller than the input. The engine raised no warnings.

Input · sample.eml · 299 B

299 bytes

Output · sample.txt · 235 B

8 non-empty lines, 28 words

Lines: 8
Words: 28

First lines of the output

txt

Subject: Re: invoice 4471
From: Dana <accounts@northwind.example>
To: billing@example.com
Date: 2026-09-08T14:02:00.000Z

Hi team,

Confirming invoice #4471 was approved today. Payment will go out with Friday's run.

Thanks,
Dana

Do it yourself

Python email module

bash

python - <<'PY'
from email import policy
from email.parser import BytesParser
msg = BytesParser(policy=policy.default).parse(open('message.eml','rb'))
part = msg.get_body(preferencelist=('plain','html'))
print('Subject:', msg['subject'])
print(part.get_content())
PY

Handle address formatting and attachment reporting yourself if the text file is for audit or discovery review.

EML to Plain text by API or MCP

The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Mail engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=eml&to=txt.

curl

curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.eml" -F "from=eml" -F "to=txt" \
  --output output.txt

API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

If the message's HTML table or styling matters, use /convert/eml-to-html and sanitize the result before display.
If attachments are part of the record, preserve the EML container because TXT does not carry MIME parts.
If you need a page-like archive for sharing, use /convert/eml-to-pdf and keep the original EML beside it.

EML to Plain text questions

Which MIME part does EML to TXT use?

When a text/plain part exists, our mail engine uses it. The tested multipart email did not strip the HTML part because a plain fallback was available.

Are EML attachments listed in TXT?

No. The notes.txt attachment from the test message was not shown in the text output, so keep the source EML when attachments matter.

Does the converter decode quoted-printable UTF-8?

Yes. The subject and body decoded correctly, including the en dash and accented café text.

How are sender and recipient addresses written?

The retest wrote Name <address> for the sender and comma-joined multiple To recipients on one line. The Cc header was still absent from the TXT output we inspected.