XML Formatter / Beautifier
Paste your messy, minified, or unreadable XML and get back a beautifully indented, human-readable version in an instant. Choose your indentation level, add an XML declaration, sort attributes — all right here in your browser. No signup, no uploads, just formatting that works.
Why use this XML formatter?
XML can get ugly fast — especially when it's minified for transmission or exported from tools that don't care about readability. This formatter instantly beautifies any XML string, making it easy to inspect, debug, or edit. Because everything runs in your browser, your data stays 100% private and the formatting is lightning fast.
- Customizable indentation – choose 2, 4, 6, 8 spaces or a tab character.
- Optional XML declaration – automatically prepend
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>if you need it. - Attribute sorting – alphabetically order attributes within each element for consistency (great for comparing files).
- Error handling – if your XML isn't valid, the tool tells you exactly what went wrong instead of crashing silently.
- Instant preview – the formatted XML appears as you type (with a small delay) or when you click Format.
How to format XML (step‑by‑step)
1. Paste your XML
Copy the raw XML from a file, API response, or anywhere else and drop it into the left box.
2. Adjust options
Pick your indentation style. Toggle the XML declaration if you need the header. Check "Sort attributes" if you want consistent attribute order.
3. See the result
The formatted XML appears on the right. If there's a syntax error, a helpful error message will show below the input box.
4. Copy or download
Click Copy to grab the beautified XML, or Download to save it as a .xml file. Then paste it into your editor or share it.
Example: before and after
| Input (minified XML) | Output (formatted with 2‑space indent) |
|---|---|
|
|
Common use cases
- API debugging: Pretty‑print XML responses from SOAP or REST endpoints to understand their structure.
- Configuration files: Beautify Android manifest files, Maven POMs, or web.config before editing.
- Data comparison: Format two XML files and use the "Sort attributes" option before running a diff.
- Documentation: Include clean XML snippets in your documentation or blog posts.
- Learning: Explore large XML datasets by making them readable.
Pro tips
- If you're comparing XML files, enable "Sort attributes" to avoid false diffs caused by attribute order.
- The XML declaration is added as
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>— perfect for most modern XML documents. - For very large XML files (tens of megabytes), the browser may take a moment. If performance is an issue, break the file into smaller chunks.
- Need to convert XML to JSON? Check out our JSON Formatter (you can first convert XML to JSON with another tool, then format).