What is a JSON Formatter?
A JSON formatter is a small JSON formatting tool that takes a document which is compact, minified or hand-assembled and rewrites it so a person can read it: every key, every array item and every value gets its own line, and nesting is expressed by indentation rather than by counting braces.
Only the whitespace changes. Keys, values, numbers, booleans, nulls and the order of everything stay exactly as they were, so the formatted document still means precisely the same thing to every program that reads it. Nothing is renamed, sorted, rounded or converted.
That makes formatting the first thing to do with JSON that arrived from somewhere else: an API response you copied from a terminal, a row dumped out of a database, a value in a log file, or a snippet from a bug report. Make it readable, then work on it.
How to format JSON online
Paste your JSON into the input panel on the left. Press the Format JSON button, or press Beautify JSON if you think of the tool that way - both do the same thing. Read the formatted result in the panel on the right, then copy it with the Copy button or download it as a file.
That is the whole workflow: paste, format, copy. It is the quickest way to make JSON readable again after a server has handed you one long unreadable line.
The result is indented with two spaces per level, which is the convention used by most JSON tooling. If your project expects tabs or four spaces, format the JSON here and run it through your own editor's re-indent command afterwards.
This JSON Formatter online is free to use with no sign-up and no usage limit, and the work happens entirely in your browser, so there is no upload step. Large documents are fine: a multi-megabyte API response is processed locally without ever being sent anywhere.
JSON formatter example: before and after
The same document arrives minified on the left and formatted on the right. Nothing was added to the data and nothing was removed - it is the same JSON, laid out so a person can read it.
{"name":"John","age":30,"skills":["JavaScript","Python"]}{
"name": "John",
"age": 30,
"skills": [
"JavaScript",
"Python"
]
}JSON beautifier: making JSON easy to read
Search for a JSON formatter and you will also find tools called a JSON beautifier, a JSON prettifier and a JSON pretty printer, and you will see people asking to beautify JSON or to JSON prettify a document. All of those are the same request: make the JSON readable.
What separates a good beautifier from a naive one is how it treats the text it is not supposed to touch. This one parses the document first and re-serializes it, so nested structures are always broken out correctly no matter how they were written, and a value that is an empty object or array is kept as {} or [] rather than being flattened into something else.
If your goal is the opposite - turning a readable document into the smallest possible one - use the JSON Minifier instead.
JSON pretty print and JSON indent
JSON pretty print is the practice of writing JSON so that structure is visible: one entry per line, arrays broken out item by item, and each nesting level indented further than the last. Pretty printed JSON is what you want in a config file you commit, in documentation, in a bug report, and anywhere a colleague has to read it.
The JSON indent is the width of one nesting level, and this formatter uses two spaces. It is the most widely used choice: JSON.stringify in JavaScript and json.dumps in Python both default to it, so formatted output from this tool drops straight into code that expects the same shape.
One thing worth knowing is that formatting does not preserve the original characters. Because the document is parsed and written back out, a number written as 1.0 can come back as 1 and an escape sequence may be written in its shortest form. The data is identical; the exact bytes are not. If you need the original text preserved character for character, you want the JSON Minifier, which copies strings through untouched.
JSON formatter vs JSON minifier
The two tools do opposite jobs and neither one changes your data, so you can move a document back and forth between them without loss. The JSON Minifier removes whitespace; this JSON Formatter adds it.
| Aspect | JSON Formatter | JSON Minifier |
|---|---|---|
| Readable output | Adds indentation and line breaks | Removes all insignificant whitespace |
| Typical result | Indented, multi-line block | One long line |
| Best for | Reading, reviewing, debugging, diffing | Network payloads, URLs, caching, storage |
| Direction | Compact JSON to pretty JSON | Pretty JSON to compact JSON |
| String contents | Re-serialized, values unchanged | Copied through byte for byte |
| Data changes | None | None |
Need the other direction? Use the JSON Minifier to strip the whitespace back out, or the JSON Beautifier for a second route into the same formatting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a JSON Formatter?
A JSON Formatter takes compact or minified JSON and rewrites it with indentation and line breaks so that a person can read it. Each key, array item and value gets its own line, and nesting is shown by indentation instead of by guessing where a closing brace belongs. It is also called a JSON beautifier or a JSON prettifier, and the underlying data is left exactly the same.
How do I format JSON online?
Paste your JSON into the input panel, press the Format JSON button, then copy the result. Everything runs inside your browser, so there is nothing to install, no account to create, and your data is never uploaded. Ctrl+Enter formats from anywhere on the page.
How do I beautify JSON?
Beautify is just another name for the same job. Paste the JSON you want to make readable and press Beautify JSON, or use the Format JSON button - both produce identical output. If you mainly want to turn a readable document into a compact one instead, that is the opposite operation and the JSON Minifier does it.
What is JSON Pretty Print?
JSON Pretty Print means writing JSON in a form a human can scan: one entry per line, consistent indentation, and arrays broken out rather than collapsed onto a single line. Pretty printing and formatting are the same operation described with different words, and a JSON pretty printer is simply a tool that performs it. This page pretty prints with a two-space indent.
Can I format minified JSON?
Yes - minified JSON is the most common input for a formatter. A single-line document such as {"name":"John","age":30} is expanded into a properly indented block. You can also paste JSON that is already formatted: running it again produces the same result, so the tool is safe to use twice.
Does formatting JSON change the data?
The values do not change. Keys, values, types and the order of every entry are preserved, so the formatted document means exactly the same thing to any program that reads it. What can differ is the text: the document is re-serialized, so a number written as 1.0 may come back as 1, and escape sequences and unicode may be written in their shortest form. That is a textual normalisation, not a data change.
Why is my JSON invalid?
The most common causes are a trailing comma before a closing brace or bracket, single quotes instead of double quotes, unquoted object keys, a missing comma between entries, and comments - JSON does not allow them. A literal newline typed inside a string also has to be written as \n. The formatter reports the approximate line, column and character position of the break so you can jump straight to it.
Is this JSON Formatter free?
Yes. It is free to use with no sign-up, no usage limit and no watermark. Formatting happens locally in your browser, which also means your JSON never leaves your device, and there is no upload size limit even for very large documents.
What indent does this JSON formatter use?
Two spaces per level, which is the most common convention in JSON ecosystems and the one used by JSON.stringify in JavaScript, Python's json.dumps and most API documentation. The Output tab shows the exact text, so you can copy it and see immediately how deeply each value is nested.