Pretty-print XML, validate syntax, and explore with collapsible tree view
📝XML InputInvalid
📤OutputNo Output
Beautified XML will appear here...
🌳 XML Tree View
💡 Sample XML
Try these examples to test the beautifier:
About XML Beautifier & Validator
Our free online XML beautifier and validator helps developers format, validate, and explore XML documents. Whether you're working with configuration files, API responses, or data exchange formats, our tool provides comprehensive XML processing capabilities.
Features
XML Beautifier: Format XML with proper indentation and spacing
XML Validator: Check XML syntax and detect errors
Tree View: Explore XML structure with collapsible nodes
XPath Error Detection: Identify and highlight XML parsing issues
Syntax Highlighting: Color-coded XML elements and attributes
Copy & Download: Easy export options for your formatted XML
How to Use
Paste your XML data into the input area
Click "Beautify XML" to format with proper indentation
Use "Validate" to check for syntax errors
Explore the tree view to understand the XML structure
Copy or download the formatted output
Common Use Cases
✅ Configuration Files: Format XML configs for readability
✅ API Development: Validate XML API responses
✅ Data Exchange: Format XML for data transfer
✅ Documentation: Create readable XML examples
✅ Debugging: Identify XML structure issues
About this tool
Free Online XML Formatter and Beautifier
Paste minified or unformatted XML and get clean, indented, readable output. This tool validates your XML for well-formedness — catching unclosed tags, missing attribute quotes, and structural errors — then reformats it with consistent indentation. All processing uses the browser's native XML parser; nothing is uploaded.
What is XML?
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a text format for structured data using nested tags with custom names. Unlike HTML, XML tags are not predefined — you define your own element names to represent your data structure. XML is self-describing and platform-independent, making it a long-standing standard for data interchange and configuration.
Where XML is Still Used
Enterprise systems — SOAP web services, EDI, financial messaging (SWIFT, FIX protocol), healthcare (HL7)
Office documents — DOCX, XLSX, PPTX are ZIP archives containing XML files
SVG graphics — Scalable Vector Graphics are XML documents
RSS/Atom feeds — podcast and news feed syndication
XSLT — transform XML to HTML or other formats using stylesheets
What is the difference between well-formed and valid XML?
Well-formed XML follows basic XML syntax rules: all tags are closed, elements are properly nested, and attributes are quoted. Valid XML additionally conforms to a specific schema (DTD or XSD) that defines which elements and attributes are allowed. This tool checks well-formedness; schema validation requires a separate schema document.
What is a CDATA section?
<![CDATA[...]]> marks content that should be treated as raw text, not XML markup. Characters like < and & inside CDATA are not parsed as XML. Useful for embedding HTML or code samples inside an XML document without escaping every special character.
What is the difference between XML attributes and elements?
Both can store data, but attributes are name-value pairs inside an opening tag (<item id="1">) while elements are separate nested tags (<id>1</id>). Attributes are more compact; elements are more flexible and support nested structure. As a rule of thumb: use attributes for metadata, elements for data content.