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XML formatter

Code formatters

Beautify, minify and validate XML documents.

Updated

Input

Options

Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<catalog>
  <book id="bk101">
    <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>
    <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>
    <price>44.95</price>
  </book>
  <book id="bk102">
    <author>Ralls, Kim</author>
    <title>Midnight Rain</title>
  </book>
</catalog>

Quick start

How to pretty-print or minify XML

Paste XML, choose pretty or minify, copy the result. Runs entirely in your browser.

  1. Step 1
    Paste XML

    Drop your XML payload — SOAP, RSS, SVG, config files — into the textarea.

  2. Step 2
    Pick mode

    Pretty print for readability with configurable indent, or minify to strip inter-tag whitespace for compact transport.

  3. Step 3
    Copy result

    Click Copy to grab the formatted output.

In-depth guide

XML formatter — pretty-print and minify in the browser

Paste XML and toggle between human-readable indented output and compact minified form. Handles SOAP envelopes, RSS feeds, configuration files, SVG and any other XML dialect. Everything runs locally; CDATA, comments and processing instructions are preserved.

When to pretty-print, when to minify

  • Pretty for debugging — reading server responses, diffing config files, code review.
  • Minify for transport — embedding XML in JSON, fitting under URL limits, reducing payload size when gzip isn't available.
  • Neither for production storage — most XML tooling doesn't care about whitespace. Keep it formatted however your editor prefers.

What's preserved

  • Tag names and casing.
  • Attribute names, values, order and quote style.
  • Comments (<!-- … -->) and processing instructions (<?…?>).
  • CDATA sections — their contents are not parsed or escaped.
  • DOCTYPE declarations.

Limits

  • Not a validator — won't catch unclosed or mismatched tags. Use a proper XML parser for validation.
  • Mixed text + child elements in the same parent ("mixed content") may not always indent ideally — XML's whitespace-significance rules conflict with pretty-printing.
  • Very large documents (10MB+) may slow the browser; chunk before pasting.

Frequently asked questions

Does this tool send my XML anywhere?

No. Formatting runs in your browser — safe to paste sensitive configs, SOAP envelopes or RSS feeds without leaking them.

Is this a full XML parser?

No — it's a structural pretty-printer. It tokenises tags, comments, CDATA, doctypes and declarations, then re-indents. Malformed XML may produce odd output but won't error.

Does it preserve CDATA sections and comments?

Yes — comments, CDATA blocks, processing instructions and DOCTYPE declarations are kept verbatim, just re-indented.

What about attribute order and quoting?

Attributes are preserved exactly as written, including their quote style and order. We don't normalise <code>'</code> to <code>"</code> or reorder for sorting.

How does minify mode differ from pretty?

Minify strips whitespace between tags and collapses runs of whitespace inside text content. Useful for embedding XML into a JSON payload or shrinking before transmission.

Will it close unclosed tags?

No — this is a layout tool, not a healer. If your XML is malformed, fix it in your editor or a real parser first.

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