Markdown Peek
Download Markdown Peek on the Mac App Store

Markdown, the way it should look.

Markdown Peek renders your .md files beautifully in Quick Look and a fast window built for Mac, with GitHub-style formatting, code in color, a table of contents, LaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, dark mode, and save to PDF. Free on the Mac App Store.

Download Markdown Peek on the Mac App Store

A viewer that gets out of your way

Open a file and read. Everything in Markdown Peek is built around that one fast, focused moment.

  • Press Space in Finder

    Select any .md file in Finder and press Space. The formatted page appears right there, with no app to launch and nothing to set up.

  • Opens the moment you double-click

    Make it your default Markdown app and every .md file opens straight into a rendered page. Even large documents open instantly and scroll without lag.

  • Looks like GitHub

    Tables, task lists, callouts, and footnotes render in the familiar GitHub style, and code is colored by language, sharp in light mode and in a dark mode tuned for reading code.

  • Jump to any heading

    Press Control-Command-S for a sidebar with every heading in the document. Click one to jump straight there, and the section you are reading stays highlighted.

  • Math and diagrams, rendered

    LaTeX formulas and Mermaid flowcharts turn into the real thing, in the window and in Quick Look, all offline.

  • The source, one key away

    Press the spacebar to flip from the rendered page to the raw Markdown, with line numbers. Press it again to flip back.

See all features

From a README and colored code to a photo journal, the raw source, the table of contents, math, and dark mode, here is Markdown Peek on macOS.

  • Markdown Peek on macOS showing a README rendered in GitHub style, with the table of contents in a sidebar and a table of keyboard shortcuts.
    Every Markdown file, beautifully rendered
  • A SKILL.md file in Markdown Peek: front matter shown as a table, Python code colored by language, a diff, and a GitHub-style Tip callout.
    Code in color, like GitHub
  • A travel journal in Markdown Peek with three photos from Lofoten, a table of nights and places, and a map.
    Not just for code
  • Markdown Peek in dark mode showing the raw Markdown source of a note, with line numbers.
    Press Space to see the source
  • Markdown Peek with the table of contents sidebar open on a long handbook, the current section highlighted.
    Jump to any heading
  • Markdown Peek rendering a LaTeX formula as real math and a Mermaid flowchart from Finder to Quick Look.
    Math and diagrams, right in the preview
  • Markdown Peek in dark mode, with a Note callout, a table, and a CSS code block.
    Easy on the eyes, day and night
  • Markdown Peek with a privacy banner blocking remote images, and a table of what happens to images, scripts, and links in a document.
    Private by design

Why Markdown?

It's plain text, so your notes, journals, and recipes open in any app, on any device, today and in twenty years. It's also the language of AI: assistants and agents read and write Markdown natively, and it costs fewer tokens than HTML or Word. No lock-in, no subscription, small files that sync and search in an instant. Markdown Peek makes them a pleasure to read.

  • Yours for good

    No app, account, or subscription stands between you and your words. A .md file you write today still opens long after the app you wrote it in is gone.

  • The language of AI

    AI assistants answer in Markdown, and agents read and write it: READMEs, agent instructions, and skill files are all plain .md. The same text takes fewer tokens than HTML or a Word file.

  • Small and quick

    A year of journal entries is a few hundred kilobytes of text. It syncs in seconds, backs up anywhere, and is easy to search with any tool.

Learn Markdown in the guide

Made for people who live in Markdown

Built for developers, writers, students, and anyone who keeps notes, journals, or recipes in Markdown: READMEs, docs, trip logs, anything.

  • Developers

    Read READMEs, API docs, and changelogs in clean GitHub style, and Quick Look any file in a repo without leaving Finder.

  • Writers

    Preview drafts, posts, and notes the way they will look, then save a tidy PDF to share when a piece is ready.

  • Students

    Open lecture notes and assignments instantly, flip to the source to check formatting, and read comfortably in dark mode.

  • Note keepers

    Journals, recipes, and trip logs look just as good as code, photos and all. Keep your notes as plain text and read them as a beautiful page.

Questions, answered

The short version. The FAQ has the rest.

What is Markdown Peek?
A fast, native Markdown viewer for macOS. It opens .md, .markdown, and .txt files in clean GitHub style, and previews them in Finder with Quick Look.
How much does it cost?
It is free on the Mac App Store. Open a file and read.
Which version of macOS do I need?
Markdown Peek runs on macOS 15.5 and later.

Read the full FAQ

Take a closer look

All the features

The full tour, plus an honest look at how Markdown Peek compares to the editors.

See features

Markdown cheat sheet

Headings, lists, tables, code, callouts, and footnotes, each with the syntax and the result.

Open the guide

Help and setup

Set Markdown Peek as your default .md app, learn the shortcuts, and fix the rare snag.

Get help

Easy for IT, too

Markdown Peek is a quick approval for managed Macs: native to the Mac App Store, sandboxed, and collecting no data.

  • App Store native

    Installed and updated through the Mac App Store, the sanctioned channel on most managed Macs. No installer to vet and no separate update path.

  • Collects no data

    No accounts, no telemetry, and no analytics. Images from the web are off by default and can be locked off with MDM, so nothing about your team or their files leaves the Mac.

  • Deploy with MDM

    Get the free app in Apple Business Manager and push it to managed Macs through your MDM. No end-user Apple Account required.

Deploy across your team

Questions? Say hello.

Support, feedback, or business and IT questions. We read every message.

We use your message only to reply. You can also email support@markdownpeek.com directly.

Download Markdown Peek on the Mac App Store