How to Format JSON: A Complete Guide for Developers
Learn how to format, beautify, and validate JSON data. Step-by-step guide with examples for API responses, config files, and debugging.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is everywhere in modern development—API responses, config files, and data storage. But raw JSON is often hard to read: minified, unformatted, or riddled with syntax errors. Here's how to format JSON effectively.
Why Format JSON?
Readability. Minified JSON saves bytes but hurts debugging. Formatted JSON with proper indentation makes structure obvious.
Validation. Invalid JSON breaks your app. A formatter catches missing commas, unclosed brackets, and trailing commas before they cause runtime errors.
Debugging. When an API returns gibberish, formatting it reveals the actual structure so you can spot issues fast.
How to Format JSON Online
- Copy your JSON — from an API response, config file, or log output
- Paste into a JSON formatter — like our free JSON formatter
- Get formatted output — with proper indentation and syntax highlighting
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Common JSON Formatting Tasks
Beautify/pretty-print: Add indentation and line breaks for readability.
Minify: Remove whitespace to reduce file size for production.
Validate: Check syntax and structure; get clear error messages pointing to the problem.
Convert: Extract values, flatten nested objects, or transform for your use case.
JSON Formatting Best Practices
- Use 2-space indentation (industry standard)
- Validate before deploying—invalid JSON = broken features
- Minify for production APIs; keep formatted copies for debugging
- Double-check encoding—JSON requires UTF-8
Try our JSON formatter and validator to format, validate, and beautify JSON instantly.