JSON Formatter/Beautifier

JSON formatting (also called beautifying or pretty-printing) takes minified or messy JSON and transforms it into a human-readable structure with proper indentation and line breaks. For example, this minified JSON:

{"tool":"json-formatter","category":"utility","active":true}

becomes:

{
    "tool": "json-formatter",
    "category": "utility",
    "active": true
}

The indentation selector lets you choose how many spaces to use for each level of nesting. You can select 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 spaces. For example, with 2 spaces:

{
  "converter": {
    "from": "JSON",
    "to": "XML"
  }
}

And with 4 spaces:

{
    "converter": {
        "from": "JSON",
        "to": "XML"
    }
}

Tip: Changing the indentation after formatting will automatically re-format the output without needing to click the Format button again.

If your JSON has syntax errors, the formatter will display an error message indicating the JSON is invalid. We also offer a dedicated tool to validate your JSON if you want to check it out: JSON Validator.

No. Formatting only changes whitespace and indentation. Your actual data: keys, values, arrays, numbers, booleans, and null values remain exactly the same.

Yes! Unlike tabular formats (CSV, Excel), JSON naturally supports deeply nested structures. The formatter handles any level of nesting and formats each level with proper indentation.

{
    "toolset": {
        "name": "ConvertChief",
        "categories": [
            {
                "name": "Converters",
                "tools": [
                    { "name": "JSON to XML", "format": "xml" },
                    { "name": "JSON to YAML", "format": "yaml" }
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "Formatters",
                "tools": [
                    { "name": "JSON Formatter", "format": "json" },
                    { "name": "XML Formatter", "format": "xml" }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

This tool is designed for formatting (beautifying) JSON. If you need to minify JSON (remove all whitespace), use our JSON Minifier tool.