Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between formatting and validating?

Formatting rewrites your text with consistent indentation and spacing so it is easier to read, without changing its values. Validating checks whether the text is valid and tells you the verdict, and it does not change the text you entered. When the text is valid, a validator also shows a formatted copy of it.

What does “strict JSON” mean, and what do the errors tell me?

The JSON tools follow the JSON rules exactly. For example, comments and trailing commas are not valid JSON.

When the text is not valid, the tool shows the first error it can locate dependably, with its line and column, so you know where to start fixing.

Can the tool fix my JSON for me?

Only in two narrow cases: removing a byte order mark (BOM) at the very start of the text, and removing a trailing comma when it is safe to do so. A fix is never applied silently. The tool shows you a preview of the change, and nothing changes until you explicitly accept it.

What happens when a conversion cannot be done faithfully?

JSON to YAML keeps the structure and every value of your data, including its types, or it refuses. JSON to XML writes readable XML with every value as text: the number 1 and the text "1" look the same, a list with one entry looks like a plain value, an empty list leaves no element, and null and an empty object are both empty elements, so the XML cannot be turned back into the same JSON. It also adjusts key names that XML cannot use, for example "with space" becomes with_space. JSON to CSV is similar: it writes plain cells, so the text "1" and the number 1 look the same, null and a missing value become an empty cell, and for an object it uses the first list of objects it finds and names it in the result. These JSON conversions do not silently change text or numbers. Markdown document conversions and OCR can lose layout or misread text; review their notices and edit the result.

Is there anything I should know about CSV?

Spreadsheet programs can interpret what is in a CSV file: text that looks like a formula may be treated as one, and values may be retyped, for example as numbers or dates. Before you copy or download the result of JSON to CSV, you have to confirm that you understand this. When you open the file in a spreadsheet, import it as text.

The site cannot promise that a CSV file is safe in every spreadsheet program.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. Text and files, including Word, Excel, PDF and images, are read in your browser and never uploaded or written to storage, cookies or the address bar. OCR and PDF reading download processing files, including OCR language data and the PDF worker, from this same site only when those tools run; no content goes to third parties. Markdown previews show external images as alt text without loading them. Paste to Markdown reads clipboard content only from your paste action.

For the full details, see the Privacy Policy

How much text can I process?

Most text tools accept input and complete output up to 2,000,000 UTF-8 bytes each (about 2 MB). Accented letters use more than one byte. Markdown visual tools have smaller source limits; Word, Excel, PDF and image imports accept up to 20,000,000 bytes. Each tool help lists its own page, cell, dimension and time limits.

For the JSON, YAML, HTML, XML and CSS tools, larger input is rejected. JSON and YAML allow up to 256 nesting levels; HTML and XML allow up to 128 element levels, counting a root as level 1 and including self-closing and HTML void elements. CSS allows up to 256 open braces, parentheses and square brackets counted together, with an independent cap of 64 open parentheses and square brackets combined. Deeper input is rejected, and the YAML Viewer rejects YAML with more than 200,000 values. If the complete output would be larger, the tool shows only an incomplete preview of up to 100,000 bytes, and that preview cannot be copied or downloaded. A run that takes longer than its time limit is stopped.

How do I copy or download the result?

Text formatting and conversion tools generally offer a copy action that puts the result on your clipboard and a download action that saves it as a file. Copy and Copy formatted write to your clipboard only when you click them. Markdown document tools generate real PDF, DOCX or XLSX files; visual tools export images, SVG or PNG. README Viewer is preview-only. Download creates the file in your browser, so nothing is uploaded. The validators offer them too, for the formatted text they show when your text is valid; when they show only a verdict, there is nothing to copy or download. The YAML Viewer shows a tree instead of text, so it has nothing to copy or download.

Legacy text-tool downloads are UTF-8 text with LF line endings and no byte order mark, with these exceptions: CSV files use CRLF line endings, and the HTML Formatter leaves the contents of script and style elements exactly as you wrote them, line endings included. Copy leaves out a byte order mark at the start in the same way.

Which languages can I use?

The interface is available in English, Português (Brasil) and Español. Choose one with the language links on any page. If you switch language or tool in the same tab, the text you entered stays in the page.

Do I need an account? Is anything saved?

No account is needed. The site keeps no document history, cloud copies or share links; you can download local results. You can open a file from your device, which is read in your browser and never uploaded, but there is no web address import. Text inputs stay in tab memory until reload or close; local file inputs need reopening after navigation. Separately from your text, if you press the theme button on a tool page, your browser keeps your choice of the light or dark look of the tool panel until you clear the site data in your browser. It stays in your browser and is never sent to the server. There is no public developer API.

What is JSON?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a plain-text format for structured data. It is built from objects of key and value pairs in curly braces, arrays in square brackets, and strings, numbers, true, false and null. APIs, configuration files and logs use it because both people and programs can read it.

Should I use JSON or YAML?

JSON is strict and simple, which makes it the usual choice for APIs and for data exchanged between programs. YAML is easier for people to write by hand, allows comments and uses indentation instead of brackets, so it is common in configuration files. You can move between them with JSON to YAML and YAML to JSON.

How do I minify JSON or change its indentation?

In the JSON Formatter and the JSON Beautifier, choose 2 or 4 spaces of indentation and press Format, or press Minify to remove every space and line break that is not part of a value. Both keep your data exactly as it is.

Can I see my JSON as a tree?

Yes. When the JSON Formatter or the JSON Beautifier formats valid JSON, it also shows the result as a tree you can expand and collapse. For YAML, the YAML Viewer shows the same kind of tree.

How do I compare two JSON documents?

Paste one document in each input of the JSON Diff. It compares them by structure and ignores the order of keys in objects, so it lists only the paths that were added, removed or changed.

Does the JWT Decoder verify the signature?

No. The JWT Decoder only reads the token: it shows the header and the payload, the exp, iat and nbf dates and whether the token has expired. It does not check the signature, so a decoded token is not proof that it is genuine. Like every tool here, it runs in your browser, and the token is never sent to the server.

Which JSON Schema versions are supported?

The JSON Schema Validator uses draft 2020-12, or draft-07 when your schema declares it with $schema, and shows each error with the path where it occurs. The JSON Schema Generator creates a draft 2020-12 schema from a sample JSON document.

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