XML Formatter — Free Online XML Beautifier

XML Formatter

100% free · Runs 100% in your browser · No signup needed

Sur XML Formatter

What is an XML Formatter?

XML is still everywhere: RSS feeds, sitemaps, SOAP APIs, configuration files, SVG graphics, and Office document formats all speak it. But XML in the wild usually arrives as one unreadable wall of text — a single line thousands of characters long. Our free XML Formatter turns that wall into a clean, indented document you can actually read, and can also squeeze formatted XML back down into a compact single line when size matters.

The formatter works with your browser's native XML parser, so it understands real XML properly: namespaces, CDATA sections, comments, processing instructions, and entity references all survive formatting untouched. Two modes cover the two directions you will ever need. Pretty mode re-indents the document with your choice of 2-space or 4-space indentation, putting every element on its own line. Minify mode strips all unnecessary whitespace to produce the smallest valid single-line document for transmission or storage.

Validation is built in, not bolted on. If your XML has a syntax error — an unclosed tag, a mismatched element, an illegal character — the tool shows you the parser's exact error message instead of crashing or silently producing garbage. That makes it a genuine debugging aid: paste a failing API response or a broken sitemap and the formatter points at the problem immediately.

XML wears more disguises than people realize. That crisp SVG logo on your website? XML. A .docx or .xlsx file? A zip of XML documents. RSS and Atom feeds, podcast enclosures, sitemaps that tell search engines about your pages, Maven and Gradle build files, Android layouts — all XML under the hood. So an XML formatter is really a multi-tool: the same Pretty button that beautifies an API response also tidies a broken SVG or a hand-edited sitemap before you upload it.

Two honest extra options round out the toolkit. The sort attributes toggle reorders each element's attributes alphabetically, which makes diffing two XML documents dramatically easier. The collapse empty elements toggle converts verbose pairs into compact form. A live stats readout counts nodes and attributes so you can see the document's shape at a glance, and Copy plus Download .xml buttons take the result anywhere. Everything runs client-side — your XML never leaves the browser.

How to Use the XML Formatter

1. Paste your XML into the input box above.
2. Choose Pretty to beautify (select 2 or 4-space indent) or Minify to compress.
3. Optionally enable attribute sorting or empty-element collapsing.
4. Click "Format" — the result appears instantly with node and attribute counts.
5. If the XML is invalid, read the parser's error message, fix the issue, and re-format.
6. For sitemaps and feeds, run the pretty version past your validator once, then download the minified version for upload — smallest file, same content.
7. Copy the result or download it as a .xml file.

Key Features

• Pretty and minify modes: human-readable indentation or single-line compact output.
• 2 or 4-space indent: match your team's or project's style.
• Real validation: parse errors shown with the parser's exact message — a genuine debugging tool.
• Sort attributes alphabetically: honest, predictable ordering that makes diffs readable.
• Collapse empty elements: becomes on request.
• Namespace and CDATA safe: namespaced documents and CDATA sections survive formatting intact.
• Node and attribute stats: instant counts revealing the document's shape.
• Copy and .xml download: one click takes the result anywhere.
• Private by design: parsed locally with the browser's XML engine; nothing uploaded.

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Pro Tips

• Validate before you debug logic: half of all "API integration bugs" are actually malformed XML — format first, then look at your code.
• Sort attributes before diffing: two documents that differ only in attribute order look identical after sorting, revealing the real changes.
• Minify for storage, pretty for review: keep the pretty version in your repo and the minified version on the wire.
• Read the error message carefully: the parser usually names the exact line and column of the problem — trust it.
• Check the node count on big feeds: a sitemap with an unexpected node count often reveals duplicated or missing entries.
• CDATA stays as CDATA: the formatter never expands CDATA into escaped text, so embedded scripts and markup inside stay exactly as authored.
• Use 2-space indent for deep documents: deeply nested XML with 4-space indent marches off the right edge; 2-space keeps it readable.
• Diff before and after: when an integration breaks after a vendor update, format the old and new payloads with attribute sorting on, then compare — the real change jumps out immediately.
• Watch encoding declarations: if your document declares an encoding like ISO-8859-1, keep the declaration intact when saving — stripping it can corrupt special characters downstream.
• Format SVG too: SVG is XML — paste it here to inspect or tidy vector graphics before embedding.

Who Uses This Tool?

• Developers debugging API responses, SOAP services, and configuration files.
• SEO specialists validating and tidying XML sitemaps and RSS feeds.
• System integrators comparing XML payloads between staging and production.
• Students learning XML structure by seeing documents properly indented.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my XML uploaded to a server?

No. Parsing and formatting happen entirely in your browser with its native XML engine. Your documents never leave your device.

What happens if my XML is invalid?

The tool displays the parser's exact error message — usually with a line and column — so you know precisely what to fix. It never crashes or produces silently wrong output.

Does it handle namespaces and CDATA?

Yes. Namespaced elements (like soap:Envelope), CDATA sections, comments, and processing instructions all survive formatting untouched.

What does the sort attributes option do?

It reorders every element's attributes alphabetically. The XML stays semantically identical — but comparing two documents side by side becomes far easier.

What is the difference between collapse and normal empty elements?

None semantically: and mean exactly the same thing in XML. Collapsing is purely a readability and size choice.

Can I use this to minify an XML sitemap before uploading?

Yes — minify mode produces the smallest valid document. Just keep a pretty-printed copy for yourself, since the minified version is unreadable by design.

Will formatting change what the XML means?

No — with one caveat. Pretty-printing adds whitespace between elements, which is insignificant in data-oriented XML like configs, feeds, and sitemaps. But if your document is document-oriented (like XHTML or DocBook) where whitespace inside mixed content matters, keep a copy of the original and prefer the minify or validation features instead of re-indenting.

Can I format an XML sitemap before submitting it to search engines?

Absolutely — and it is good practice. Format it pretty to review every URL for typos and duplicates, check the node count matches your page count, then upload the minified version so crawlers download the smallest possible file.

Does the formatter work offline?

Yes. Once the page has loaded, no network requests are needed — the browser’s built-in XML parser does all the work locally. You can even keep the tab open and format documents with your connection down.

How large a document can I format?

There is no artificial cap. Large feeds and sitemaps format comfortably; only documents of many megabytes are limited by your device's memory.

Related Tools

More free FistHost tools for structured data: JSON Formatter for JSON documents, Diff Checker to compare two XML files, HTML Minifier, URL Encoder Decoder, and Base64 Encoder Decoder.

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