Remove Extra Spaces

Clean up multiple spaces and tabs in text down to a single space.

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.

What this tool does

Collapses runs of spaces and tabs within each line down to a single space, while leaving line breaks and blank lines exactly as they were.

How to use it

Paste text with irregular spacing into the box. The cleaned result appears immediately below, ready to copy with one click.

Worked example

Pasting " Hello world,\t\tthis is a test. \n\n Second line here. " produces "Hello world, this is a test.\n\nSecond line here." — every run of spaces or tabs becomes one space, and the stray spaces right next to each line break are trimmed away.

What counts as a space here

The cleanup targets the plain ASCII space and tab characters specifically — runs of one or more are replaced with a single space. Line breaks themselves are matched separately, so a space or tab sitting directly before or after a newline is removed rather than collapsed into one.

What it leaves untouched

Blank lines are preserved exactly as-is: three consecutive newlines in the input stay three consecutive newlines in the output, since only single line breaks are touched by the cleanup pattern, not runs of them. The entire result is trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace, but nothing in the middle beyond spaces and tabs is altered.

Limitations

Other whitespace-like characters — such as non-breaking spaces (\u00A0), full-width spaces, or zero-width characters copied from PDFs and web pages — aren't recognized as spaces by this pattern and pass through unchanged. If you need to strip blank lines entirely rather than just tidy spacing, use a dedicated empty-line remover instead.

Privacy and processing

The cleanup runs entirely in your browser with a simple regular expression. Nothing you paste is uploaded or stored.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this remove line breaks too?
No, line breaks are preserved; only repeated spaces and tabs within lines are collapsed to a single space.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No, everything is processed locally in your browser.
Can I copy the cleaned text directly?
Yes, use the Copy button to copy the cleaned-up result to your clipboard.