How to clean up WordPress HTML with the Puritext API

If you're managing content in WordPress, you've probably encountered copy-pasted formatting disasters: inline styles, Word artifacts, weird symbols, and inconsistent spacing. Puritext API helps you automate the cleaning process and keep your CMS code tidy.

Step 1 – Get your API token

Log into your account and copy your API token (available only to PRO users).

Step 2 – Set up your script

Here's a simple `curl` command you can use to clean HTML:

curl -X POST https://puritext.com/api/clean \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "<p style=\"font-family:Calibri\">Hello from Word! 😬</p>",
    "format": "cms",
    "remove_html": false,
    "remove_emoji": true,
    "remove_symbols": true,
    "normalize_quotes": true,
    "remove_double_spaces": true
  }'

Step 3 – Paste the result

Use the cleaned output as your new post content in WordPress (in HTML view). All garbage is gone, but rich elements like <p>, <strong> or <a> are preserved.

Extra tip: Batch process

If you have dozens of posts to clean, use the same API call in a loop. Read from your database, clean via Puritext, and save back.

Questions? Contact us or check out the full API documentation.