ChatGPT Em Dash Removal — Why They Appear and How to Fix Them
Why ChatGPT overuses em dashes and how to remove or replace them for different publishing destinations.
Em dashes are one of ChatGPT's most distinctive formatting habits. The model uses them frequently — sometimes multiple times in a single paragraph — and while they are grammatically correct, they cause significant display issues in many applications. This guide explains why ChatGPT loves em dashes and how to handle them properly.
Why ChatGPT Uses So Many Em Dashes
ChatGPT uses em dashes because its training data contains significant amounts of published writing where em dashes are common. The em dash is a versatile punctuation mark that can replace commas, parentheses, colons, and semicolons in various contexts. ChatGPT's language model learned to use them frequently because they appeared frequently in the text it was trained on. The result is output that uses em dashes more than most human writers would, often several times per paragraph.
Why Em Dashes Are Problematic
The em dash character (U+2014) is a Unicode character outside the basic ASCII range. While most modern systems display it correctly, some older email clients replace it with a question mark or a box character. Some fonts do not include an em dash glyph. Screen readers may pronounce it inconsistently. When em dashes are used without spaces around them (ChatGPT's typical style), they can prevent line wrapping at that position, creating display issues on narrow screens. In technical contexts, em dashes can conflict with command-line syntax where double hyphens have specific meanings.
Manual Em Dash Removal
To remove em dashes manually, use Find and Replace. Copy an em dash from the text (or type one: Alt+0151 on Windows, Option+Shift+Hyphen on Mac) and paste it into the Find field. Replace with: a comma and space for parenthetical clauses, a period for sentence breaks, a colon for introductions, or simply nothing if the em dash is unnecessary. Review each instance individually for the most natural-sounding replacement.
Using Find and Replace for Em Dashes
For batch removal, use Find and Replace to change all em dashes at once. The most common replacements are: em dash to double hyphen (preserves the visual break without Unicode issues), em dash to comma plus space (works for most parenthetical uses), or em dash to nothing (removes the break entirely, joining the surrounding text). Choose one replacement strategy and apply it consistently throughout your document for a uniform style.
When to Keep vs Remove Em Dashes
Not all em dashes need to be removed. If your publishing platform fully supports Unicode (modern web browsers, Notion, Google Docs), em dashes display correctly and can stay. If your audience uses older email clients or your platform has known Unicode issues, replace them. If you are publishing to plain text formats (like SMS or basic text files), always replace them. The decision depends entirely on your destination's character support and your style guide preferences.
Automating Em Dash Replacement
Include em dash replacement in your standard text cleaning workflow. Most browser-based text cleaners handle em dashes as part of their cleaning process. iPhone Shortcuts can include a Replace Text action that swaps em dashes. Word processors' AutoCorrect can be configured to handle em dashes automatically. The key is consistency — decide on your replacement strategy once and apply it the same way every time. For more formatting solutions, see our formatting issues guide and best practices.
Em Dashes in Specific Platforms
Gmail and modern webmail display em dashes correctly. Outlook may display them incorrectly in plain-text emails. WordPress renders them fine in both Classic and Gutenberg editors. Social media platforms handle them well on most devices. The main risk is email — if any of your recipients might use an older email client, replace em dashes before sending. For email-specific cleaning, see our email formatting guide.