diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/filters/ansi.py b/IPython/nbconvert/filters/ansi.py
index ad8c7c1..0d6913d 100644
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/filters/ansi.py
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/filters/ansi.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 import re
 from IPython.utils import coloransi
+from IPython.utils.text import strip_ansi
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Classes and functions
@@ -26,19 +27,6 @@ __all__ = [
     'ansi2latex'
 ]
 
-def strip_ansi(source):
-    """
-    Remove ansi from text
-    
-    Parameters
-    ----------
-    source : str
-        Source to remove the ansi from
-    """
-    
-    return re.sub(r'\033\[(\d|;)+?m', '', source)
-
-
 ansi_colormap = {
     '30': 'ansiblack',
     '31': 'ansired',
diff --git a/IPython/testing/iptestcontroller.py b/IPython/testing/iptestcontroller.py
index 0000a38..2982397 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/iptestcontroller.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/iptestcontroller.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ from IPython.utils.path import compress_user
 from IPython.utils.py3compat import bytes_to_str
 from IPython.utils.sysinfo import get_sys_info
 from IPython.utils.tempdir import TemporaryDirectory
-from IPython.nbconvert.filters.ansi import strip_ansi
+from IPython.utils.text import strip_ansi
 
 try:
     # Python >= 3.3
diff --git a/IPython/utils/text.py b/IPython/utils/text.py
index b57895b..6cd9955 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/text.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/text.py
@@ -491,6 +491,17 @@ def strip_email_quotes(text):
             text = '\n'.join([ ln[strip:] for ln in lines])
     return text
 
+def strip_ansi(source):
+    """
+    Remove ansi escape codes from text.
+    
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    source : str
+        Source to remove the ansi from
+    """
+    return re.sub(r'\033\[(\d|;)+?m', '', source)
+
 
 class EvalFormatter(Formatter):
     """A String Formatter that allows evaluation of simple expressions.