Strikethrough Text Generator: Cross Out Text Free

You want to cross out text and have it actually show up that way on Instagram, Discord, Twitter, or wherever you’re posting. That’s exactly what a strikethrough text generator does: type your text, get back a version with a line through every letter, and copy-paste it anywhere. No app, no settings menu, no HTML knowledge required.

A strikethrough text generator adds a Unicode combining character (most commonly U+0336) to every letter you type, which draws a line through it. Because it’s a real character, not formatting, it pastes as styled text into places that don’t support Markdown or HTML, like Instagram bios, TikTok captions, and usernames.

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What Is a Strikethrough Text Generator?

A strikethrough text generator is a tool that converts normal text into text with a line through it, using special Unicode characters instead of formatting tags. When you type “hello,” it gives you back “h̶e̶l̶l̶o̶,” and that result is plain text you can paste into literally any text field on the internet.

This matters because most platforms don’t let you format text natively. Instagram doesn’t have a strikethrough button. Neither does Twitter/X, TikTok, or most usernames and bios anywhere. A strikethrough text generator sidesteps that entirely by baking the line into the character itself.

Unicode combining characters are special codepoints that attach to the character before them rather than standing alone. U+0336 (COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY) is the character used for standard strikethrough text. It’s not an image, a font, or HTML, it’s a real character sitting right next to your letter in the text string.

How Strikethrough Text Actually Works

Here’s the mechanism, stripped of jargon. Every letter you type gets a second, invisible-on-its-own character appended right after it: U+0336. That character doesn’t render as its own symbol, it draws a horizontal line through whatever comes before it.

So “cat” becomes c + ̶, a + ̶, t + ̶, which displays as c̶a̶t̶. Do that to every letter in a sentence and the whole thing reads as struck through, even though under the hood it’s just regular letters with a line character riding along.

This is also why strikethrough text sometimes looks slightly off. The line sits at a fixed height regardless of how tall or short the letter is, so it can look perfectly centered on some fonts and a little high or low on others. That’s a font rendering quirk, not a bug in the generator.

Why Strikethrough Text Sometimes Shows Boxes or Question Marks

If you paste strikethrough text and see empty boxes, question marks, or random symbols instead of a line through your letters, it’s almost always a font or device issue, not a problem with the text itself. The combining character is still there, the device just doesn’t have a font installed that knows how to draw it.

This happens most often on older Android phones, some Windows fonts, and apps with limited Unicode support. The fix isn’t on your end: switching to a different app or platform usually resolves it instantly, since the same text that breaks in one place will render perfectly in another. If it’s broken everywhere you try, the ASCII strikethrough fallback covered below is the safer bet.

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Strikethrough Styles You Can Generate

Not all strikethrough looks the same. Depending on which combining character is used, you get a different visual effect:

Double Strikethrough Text

Double strikethrough stacks two line characters on each letter instead of one, giving you a heavier, more emphatic cross-out. People use it when a single line doesn’t feel dramatic enough, like canceling a price twice for comedic effect or making a “this is REALLY over” statement in a caption.

Diagonal Strikethrough Text

Diagonal strikethrough uses a slash character instead of a horizontal line, which reads more like a redacted document or a hand-drawn “X” through a word. It’s the style people reach for when they want something to look officially crossed off rather than just edited.

Bold Strikethrough Text

Bold strikethrough combines a bold Unicode letter set with the strikethrough overlay, so the crossed-out text still stands out visually even with a line through it. This works well in headlines, sale announcements, or anywhere you want the struck text to remain readable and prominent instead of fading into the background.

ASCII Strikethrough (Plain-Text Fallback)

Not every field accepts Unicode combining characters cleanly, some older systems, certain form fields, and basic plain-text editors will either strip them or render them oddly. For those cases, an ASCII strikethrough text generator gives you a typewriter-style fallback using regular keyboard characters, like wrapping text in hyphens or using a tilde-based approximation, so you still get a visual “crossed out” effect even where true Unicode isn’t supported.

Strikethrough Text Generator, One Line

If you just need a quick, no-scroll tool, a one-line strikethrough generator is built for short text: usernames, single captions, a quick price correction. Type your phrase, get one line of struck-through output, copy it, done. No need to wade through multiple style panels when you’re crossing out three words.

How to Use a Strikethrough Text Generator

That’s the whole process. Nothing downloads, nothing installs, and your original text never needs to leave your browser if the tool processes everything client-side.

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your text gets converted to strikethrough on your device, not on a server, so nothing you type is sent, stored, or logged anywhere. You can close the tab right after copying your result and nothing about what you typed sticks around.

Need to keep a copy for later, like a price list or revision log? Use the download option to save your output as a plain text file instead of just copying it; that version stays intact when pasted into Excel or Google Sheets cells too.

Strikethrough Outside This Tool: Word, Docs, and Email

If you’re working inside Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or an email client, you don’t need a generator at all, these tools have native strikethrough built in. In Word, select your text and press Alt + H + 4. In Google Docs, use Alt + Shift + 5 (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + X (Mac). Most email clients, including Gmail and Outlook, have a strikethrough button in the formatting toolbar when composing in rich text mode.

The generator is for everywhere those native options don’t exist: social bios, captions, usernames, and plain-text fields where there’s no formatting toolbar to click.

Where Strikethrough Text Works (and Where It Doesn’t)

This is the part most generators skip, and it’s the part people actually need. There are two completely different ways to get strikethrough: typing Markdown syntax like ~~text~~, or pasting Unicode strikethrough text generated by a tool like this one. They are not interchangeable.

The short version: if a platform has built-in Markdown support (Discord, Reddit, Slack, WhatsApp), typing tildes is faster. Everywhere else, including usernames, bios, and any plain-text field, you need actual Unicode strikethrough text pasted in, because there’s no formatting engine to interpret your tildes.

Common Uses for Strikethrough Text

People reach for strikethrough text for a handful of recurring reasons, and knowing which one you’re solving for helps you pick the right style:

Strikethrough has roots in typewriters and handwritten editing, where crossing out a word was the fastest way to correct something without erasing or retyping. The digital version carries the same purpose: show what changed without hiding the original.

What Makes a Strikethrough Text Generator the Best One to Use

Not all strikethrough generators are built the same way, and the differences actually matter once you’re using one regularly. Here’s what separates a good one from a thin, ad-stuffed tool:

A generator that checks all six boxes saves you from bouncing between five different tools depending on which style or platform you need that day.

Frequently Asked Questions