100% Private & Secure

JSON Formatter
Format, Beautify & Validate JSON

Paste your JSON, format it with syntax highlighting, minify for production, validate structure, sort keys, and clean null values — all processing happens entirely on your device.

Format & beautifyMinify & validateSyntax highlightingSort keys & clean
Paste JSON to validate
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Keys
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Arrays
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Characters
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Minified
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Formatted
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Indent:
Input1 line
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Output
Formatted output will appear here
Overview

What Is the JSON Formatter?

The JSON Formatter is a developer tool for formatting, beautifying, validating, and transforming JSON data. Paste any JSON string — from a compact API response to a sprawling configuration file — and instantly get clean, indented, syntax-highlighted output. Choose 2-space, 4-space, or tab indentation to match your project's style.

Beyond formatting, the tool provides one-click minification for production use, recursive key sorting for deterministic output, and null removal for data cleaning. Real-time validation continuously checks your input as you type, pinpointing errors with line numbers so you can fix issues before they reach production.

The syntax highlighter uses distinct colors for every JSON token type: purple for keys, green for strings, blue for numbers, orange for booleans, and red for null. This makes it easy to scan large JSON structures and spot anomalies without reading every character.

Everything runs 100% in your browser using JavaScript. Your data never touches a server — no uploads, no analytics, no storage. This makes it safe for API keys, tokens, credentials, and any other sensitive JSON payloads. Close the tab and all data is gone.

Features

Discover Features

Format, validate, minify, sort, clean, and highlight — everything you need for working with JSON

Format & Beautify with Syntax Highlighting

Transform minified or messy JSON into beautifully indented, color-coded output. Strings, numbers, booleans, nulls, and keys each get distinct colors so you can scan structure at a glance.

Minify for Production

Strip all whitespace and newlines from your JSON to produce the smallest possible payload. Ideal for API requests, configuration files, and anywhere byte count matters.

Real-Time Validation

As you type, the tool continuously parses your input and shows a live valid/invalid indicator. When invalid, it pinpoints the exact error message and highlights the problematic line.

Sort Keys Alphabetically

Recursively sort all object keys in alphabetical order throughout the entire JSON tree. Perfect for creating deterministic output, easier diffs, and consistent API responses.

Remove Nulls & Clean Data

Recursively strip all null values from objects and arrays throughout your JSON. Useful for cleaning API responses, reducing payload size, and preparing data for systems that don't handle nulls well.

100% Private & Secure

All formatting, validation, and transformation happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is sent to any server. Close the tab and nothing remains — safe for API keys, tokens, and sensitive configuration.

How to Use

Four steps: paste JSON, choose an action, review the output, and copy or download

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Paste or Drop JSON

Paste your JSON into the input panel or drag-and-drop a .json file. The editor supports any size of JSON data with line numbers for easy navigation.

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Choose Your Action

Click Format to beautify, Minify to compress, Sort Keys to alphabetize, or Remove Nulls to clean. Select your preferred indentation: 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs.

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03

Review the Output

Inspect the syntax-highlighted output in the right panel. Check the live stats panel for depth, key count, array count, and size comparisons between formatted and minified versions.

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Copy or Download

Copy the formatted or minified result to your clipboard with one click, or download it as a .json file. Use Clear to start fresh with new input.

Use Cases

Common scenarios where the JSON Formatter saves time and simplifies your workflow

API Development & Debugging

Paste API responses to format and inspect nested structures. Validate payloads before sending, sort keys for consistent request bodies, and minify for production.

Database & Config Inspection

Format JSON stored in databases or configuration files to understand complex nested structures. Sort keys to compare configs across environments.

Code Reviews & Pull Requests

Sort keys alphabetically before committing JSON files to produce cleaner, more predictable diffs. Remove unnecessary nulls to keep configuration files lean.

Learning & Documentation

Format sample JSON for tutorials, documentation, and teaching materials. The syntax highlighting makes it easy to explain data structures to beginners.

Data Migration & ETL

Validate and clean JSON before feeding it into ETL pipelines. Remove nulls, sort keys for deterministic output, and verify structure before importing into target systems.

Security & Token Inspection

Safely format and inspect JSON payloads containing API keys, JWT claims, or OAuth tokens. All processing is local — nothing is transmitted to any server.

Compare Plans

Free vs Paid — JSON Formatter

Get started free, upgrade when you need more power.

Feature
Free
Paid
Daily usage
5 uses/day
Unlimited
File size limit
10 MB
Up to 500 MB
All core features
No software installation
Works on any device
Files stay on your device
Batch processing
Priority support
Upgrade — starting at $4.99/mo
Upgrade to Full Version

Unlock the Full Power of JSON Formatter

Remove daily limits, process larger files up to 500 MB, enable batch processing, and get priority support.

Buy Full Version — $4.99/moor $200 enterprise

Developer Tools includes:

  • 13 developer & utility tools
  • Unlimited daily uses
  • No file size limits
  • All output formats

Also available in the All Tools Bundle

FAQ

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the JSON Formatter

Q1. What is JSON formatting / beautifying?
JSON formatting (also called beautifying or pretty-printing) takes compact or minified JSON and adds proper indentation, line breaks, and spacing to make it human-readable. This tool uses JSON.parse followed by JSON.stringify with configurable indentation to produce clean, well-structured output.
Q2. Is my data safe when I paste JSON here?
Yes. All processing happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is sent to any server — not even analytics. Your JSON never leaves your device. Close the tab and all data is gone.
Q3. What does the Minify button do?
Minify strips all unnecessary whitespace, newlines, and indentation from your JSON, producing the most compact representation possible. This is useful for reducing payload size in API requests, configuration files, and network transfers.
Q4. How does Sort Keys work?
Sort Keys recursively traverses your entire JSON tree and alphabetically sorts the keys of every object it encounters. This produces deterministic output that is ideal for version control diffs, API request signing, and comparing JSON documents.
Q5. What does Remove Nulls do?
Remove Nulls recursively walks through your JSON and removes any key-value pair where the value is null, as well as null entries in arrays. This is helpful for cleaning API responses, reducing document size, and preparing data for systems that treat null values differently from missing keys.
Q6. Can I format invalid JSON?
No — the tool requires valid JSON to format, minify, sort, or remove nulls because it uses the browser's native JSON.parse function. However, the real-time validator will immediately tell you what's wrong and highlight the problematic line so you can fix the error before formatting.
Q7. What do Escape and Unescape do?
Escape converts your JSON into an escaped string suitable for embedding inside another JSON string (e.g., for storing JSON as a string value in a database). Unescape reverses this process, converting an escaped JSON string back into its original form.
Q8. What statistics does the tool show?
The stats panel shows: object nesting depth, total key count across all objects, total array count, character count, minified byte size, and formatted byte size. These update in real-time as you type, helping you understand the structure and size of your JSON data.
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