XML Formatter & Beautifier Online — Free
Runs 100% in your browser — your files never leave your device.
Machine-generated XML is usually valid but impossible to scan when everything is packed onto one line. Paste the document, choose the indentation characters, and get a structured multi-line version while malformed XML is rejected with a useful error.
How it works
- 1
Paste compact XML
- 2
Choose indentation
- 3
Copy the formatted document
About this tool
What formatting does
The tool re-indents your XML with consistent nesting, one element per line — turning machine-generated single-line XML into a tree you can actually navigate. Attributes, text content, and declarations stay exactly as they were; only the presentation normalizes.
Where unreadable XML comes from
SOAP responses, build outputs, and service integrations often ship minified XML — valid, but a wall of angle brackets. Formatting exposes the structure: which element nests where, which tag never closed, where the namespace you are hunting actually lives.
Formatting as a validator
A formatter cannot run on malformed XML — mismatched tags and stray characters surface as errors that point at the problem line. When an integration breaks, format the response first: half the time the structure itself answers the question.
Frequently asked questions
Does formatting change the data?
No — elements, attributes, and values stay identical. Whitespace between elements can carry meaning in rare XML uses (mixed content), so verify those specific cases.
Why does my formatted XML have extra blank space inside elements?
Elements containing text keep their text exactly; only the layout between tags normalizes. Text with significant internal whitespace is preserved.
Can it fix namespaces that reference undeclared prefixes?
No — formatting is presentation. Undeclared prefixes are validity errors that the tool reports rather than repairs.