How to make Zalgo text
- Type or paste your text in the box. The Zalgo version appears below as you type.
- Choose an intensity: Mini for a subtle glitch, Normal for classic cursed text, Maxi for towering marks. The slider gives you all ten levels.
- Tick or untick Up, Middle and Down to control where the marks grow. Up only looks like text melting upward, down only like it is dripping.
- Press Regenerate for a new random arrangement until you like the look.
- Press Copy and paste it into a message, a username, a post or a document.
How Zalgo text works
Zalgo text uses combining characters: Unicode marks that do not stand alone but attach to the character before them. They exist for real reasons, accents like the acute in é, the tilde in ñ, or phonetic marks used by linguists. Normally a letter carries one or two. A Zalgo generator piles dozens onto every letter, and because each mark is drawn relative to the one below it, they stack into columns that rise above and sink below the line.
This generator draws from the Combining Diacritical Marks block (U+0300 to U+036F) and a Cyrillic combining sign, sorted into three groups: 50 marks that sit above a letter, 22 that strike through or overlay it, and 40 that hang below. For each visible character it adds a random number of marks from each group you have switched on. Spaces and line breaks are left alone so words still wrap normally.
Intensity levels
How many marks each letter gets per direction at the three presets. The exact number is random within the range, which is why every regeneration looks different.
| Preset | Level | Marks above | Marks through | Marks below |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 2/10 | 1 to 4 | 0 to 1 | 1 to 4 |
| Normal | 5/10 | 3 to 10 | 0 to 2 | 3 to 10 |
| Maxi | 10/10 | 5 to 20 | 0 to 3 | 5 to 20 |
Higher levels make longer text: every mark is a separate character, so a short phrase at Maxi can be several hundred characters. Sites with a character limit (usernames, bios, tweets) count every mark, so use Mini or Normal there.
Cleaning Zalgo text
Switch to Clean Zalgo and paste cursed text to get the plain letters back. The cleaner first normalises the text to Unicode NFD, which splits accented letters into a base letter plus its accent, then removes every combining mark from the diacritical blocks Zalgo uses, then recombines what is left. The result is readable, searchable text.
Because ordinary accents are combining marks too, they are removed as well: café becomes cafe and Émile becomes Emile. Letters, digits, punctuation and emoji are kept, and so are the vowel signs of scripts such as Hindi and Thai, which use marks from other Unicode blocks. Use the cleaner to fix a username you cannot read, to make cursed text searchable, or to strip accents from text.
Where Zalgo text works
- Chat apps and social media: Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and X display combining marks, though some trim very tall stacks or limit how many marks a letter may carry.
- Usernames: many games and platforms reject or strip combining marks in names. Mini level has the best chance of being accepted.
- Documents and designs: word processors and design tools render Zalgo for horror titles, Halloween posters, glitch art and creepypasta stories.
- Search and accessibility: Zalgo text is not searchable as the original words, and screen readers may read out every mark or skip the text entirely. Do not use it for anything people need to read or find.
Very heavy Zalgo can spill over neighbouring lines and make a page hard to read, and some communities treat it as spam. A little goes a long way.
FAQ
What is Zalgo text?
Zalgo text is normal text covered in stacked Unicode combining marks so it looks glitchy or corrupted. The name comes from a 2000s internet meme about an eldritch entity whose arrival makes text "melt"; it is also called cursed, glitch or creepy text.
Is cursed text the same as Zalgo text?
Yes. "Cursed text generator" and "Zalgo text generator" describe the same thing: adding combining marks to every letter. Some sites also call fancy Unicode fonts "cursed", but the dripping, glitchy look is Zalgo.
Can Zalgo text harm my device?
No. It is ordinary Unicode text. Extremely long stacks can slow down rendering in some apps, which is why many platforms cap the number of marks per letter.
How do I remove Zalgo from text?
Use the Clean Zalgo mode on this page. It strips every combining mark and leaves the plain letters. Note that it removes normal accents too.
Why does my Zalgo text look different on another device?
Each font and app draws combining marks its own way. Some stack them neatly, some overlap them, and some clip them at the line height, so the same text can look tall in one app and flat in another.
Reference pages
- Symbols to copy and paste: Unicode, HTML codes and Alt codes for popular symbols.