Problem: When you copy math formulas (in LaTeX format, e.g. $...$ or $$...$$) from AI chat assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini (Bard), or xAI’s Grok and paste them into a Notion page using a normal Ctrl+V operation, the equations appear as plain text rather than nicely rendered math. You want these pasted formulas to auto-render in Notion without manually reformatting each one.
AI chat UIs handle LaTeX in different ways, which affects what actually gets copied to your clipboard:
$...$ delimiters with LaTeX’s longer forms \\(...\\) for inline math and \\[...\\] for display mathcommunity.make.com. These ensure the raw LaTeX is preserved in the copy. For instance, a ChatGPT equation like $E=mc^2$ might be copied as \\(E=mc^2\\) (inline mode) in your clipboardcommunity.make.com. Similarly, a displayed equation $$...$$ would be copied as \\[...\\]. This preserves the content, but it isn’t the format Notion uses (Notion won’t recognize \\(...\\) on its own).$...$ text or even just plaintext math. This raw text is actually easier to copy because it includes the dollar signs. However, if you are using a platform that does render Claude’s output (some UIs might format $...$ similar to ChatGPT), then the copy/paste issues would be similar. In most cases with Claude, you’ll get the LaTeX as-is in the text, which you can copy – but you’ll still need to adjust it for Notion (e.g. doubling the $).$\\frac{a}{b}$), you can copy that text directly (the $ will be included). But if it outputs rendered math in its UI, copying may yield an image or just the result without LaTeX source. Google’s own support forum confirms that at one point “Gemini’s KaTeX tag does not contain katex-mathml, and [Bard] cannot recognize the TeX formula before it is converted to HTML”, making it hard to copy the raw LaTeXsupport.google.com. In short, with Bard you often must prompt it to give LaTeX code (not just rendered math) for copying.Key takeaway: Getting LaTeX from these AI chats often requires special handling. Either you copy as plain text (which might give you \\(...\\)/\\[…\\] or raw $ text), or you risk copying hidden elements that confuse Notion. Now, let’s see how Notion expects math to be formatted.
Notion uses the KaTeX library to render mathematicsnotion.com, but it has its own specific syntax requirements for recognizing an equation:
$$, Notion will convert that text into a rendered formula. Unlike typical LaTeX or Markdown where $...$ is inline, Notion does not recognize a single $ – you must use $$ for inline mathsuperuser.com. For example, to show E = mc² in the middle of a sentence, you’d enter $$E = mc^2$$. If you only paste $E = mc^2$, Notion will leave it as literal text (it won’t render)./math or /equation on a new line (or using the + menu)notion.com. This opens a dedicated equation input. In that context, you do not include any dollar signs at all – you just paste or type the raw LaTeX inside the block. (Notion knows that block is an equation, so it doesn’t require delimiters.) If you imported or pasted a markdown snippet with $$...$$ intending it to be a block, Notion will actually show the $$ literally rather than rendering itsuperuser.comsuperuser.com. In other words, $$ in a normal text block doesn’t create a display equation automatically; it only works via the slash command. The expected method is:
/math),$$, and hit “Done” to render itmathpix.com.\\(E=mc^2\\) or $E=mc^2$ and then tried to format that whole thing as an equation, Notion might get confused by the extra symbols. The recommended approach is to have just E=mc^2 selected, then convert – Notion will then add its own $$ around it internally.*bold** will turn into bold formatting), but when you paste a chunk of text, Notion often treats it literally. Equations are one of the pain points: if you paste a Markdown file or text with $...$ math, you’ll just see $...$ in Notion. In fact, one user reported that when importing a markdown with inline $...$, Notion ended up converting the math into plain Unicode characters rather than an equation elementsuperuser.com. And as noted, $$...$$ pasted as text remains as-is (you see the “$$” on the page)superuser.com. The official workaround from Notion is exactly what we described: manually select each equation and use the equation format toggle, or cut/paste into new /math blocks for displayssuperuser.com. Obviously, doing this for every formula is tedious if you have many equations.Summary: Notion needs $$ around inline math and a special block for display math. Pasting content from elsewhere will not trigger Notion to auto-render equations – you either have to enter the proper delimiters yourself or use Notion’s UI to mark them as equations. Now let’s examine why copied AI outputs often fail to meet these requirements.