XML Beautifier
Indent and pretty-print tangled XML so nested elements, attributes and hierarchy are easy to follow — with well-formedness checked along the way.
What is an XML beautifier?
An XML beautifier re-indents XML so the tree structure is visible at a glance: child elements step in from their parents, attributes stay on their tags, and each node gets its own line. It's the difference between a 4,000-character single line and a document you can actually navigate.
Before formatting, the tool parses your input to confirm it's well-formed — every tag closed, properly nested, with a single root. If something is off, you find out immediately instead of formatting broken markup.
Parsing happens in your browser via the native XML parser, so configuration files and API payloads never leave your device.
How to beautify XML
- 1
Paste your XML
Add minified or single-line XML to the input pane, or upload an .xml file.
- 2
Get indented markup
The formatted, nicely nested XML appears in the output pane.
- 3
Confirm it's well-formed
If the document isn't valid XML, an error tells you so before you rely on it.
- 4
Copy or download
Copy the result or save it as an .xml file.
Where it earns its keep
Read config & build files
Make sense of dense pom.xml, web.config, or SVG source by giving it real structure.
Inspect SOAP & RSS
Pretty-print API envelopes and feeds so you can find the element you need quickly.
Validate well-formedness
Catch unclosed or mismatched tags before they break a parser downstream.
Stay private
Everything runs locally, so internal service payloads stay internal.
Example: before and after
A single-line document on the left, indented output on the right.
<note><to>Ada</to><from>Grace</from><body>Ship it.</body></note><note>
<to>Ada</to>
<from>Grace</from>
<body>Ship it.</body>
</note>Well-formed vs. valid: an important distinction
This tool checks that your XML is well-formed — syntactically correct, with properly nested and closed tags and one root element. That's different from being valid, which means conforming to a specific DTD or XML Schema. Most everyday formatting needs only well-formedness; schema validation is a separate, document-specific step.
What beautifying preserves
- Element names, attributes and their values stay exactly as written.
- Text content and the order of elements are unchanged.
- Namespaces and prefixes are kept intact.
- Only indentation and line breaks are added for readability.
Frequently asked questions
No. Element names, attributes, values and order are preserved. Only whitespace is adjusted so the structure is readable.
It means the document isn't well-formed — for example a tag isn't closed, tags are mis-nested, or there's more than one root element. Fix the structural issue and formatting will succeed.
No. It's parsed and formatted in your browser using the native XML parser, so nothing is transmitted.
Yes. SVG is XML, so you can paste SVG source and get nicely indented markup back — handy for hand-editing icons.
No. It checks well-formedness, not conformance to a particular schema. Schema or DTD validation is a separate step specific to your document type.
Yes — once your XML is clean, use our XML to JSON converter to transform it into JSON for use in modern apps and APIs.
Need another tool?
Browse the full toolbox or dig into the blog for the engineering behind it.