JSON Beautifier Online

Before and After Beautification

Minified (hard to read):

{"user":{"id":101,"name":"Alice Johnson","email":"alice@example.com","roles":["admin","editor"],"active":true,"address":{"city":"New York","zip":"10001"}}}

Beautified (2-space indent):

{
  "user": {
    "id": 101,
    "name": "Alice Johnson",
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "roles": [
      "admin",
      "editor"
    ],
    "active": true,
    "address": {
      "city": "New York",
      "zip": "10001"
    }
  }
}

Beautify JSON in JavaScript

// 2-space indent (most common)
JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(minifiedJson), null, 2);

// 4-space indent
JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(minifiedJson), null, 4);

// Tab indent
JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(minifiedJson), null, '\t');

// Sort keys alphabetically while beautifying
const sorted = (k, v) => v instanceof Object && !Array.isArray(v)
  ? Object.keys(v).sort().reduce((acc, key) => ({ ...acc, [key]: v[key] }), {})
  : v;
JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(minifiedJson), sorted, 2);

Beautify JSON in Python

import json

minified = '{"name":"Alice","age":30,"city":"NYC"}'

# Beautify with 2-space indent
beautified = json.dumps(json.loads(minified), indent=2)
print(beautified)

# Sort keys + 4-space indent
beautified_sorted = json.dumps(json.loads(minified), indent=4, sort_keys=True)

# Beautify a file
with open('data.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)
with open('data-pretty.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(data, f, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)

Beautify JSON from Command Line

# Using Python (available on any system)
cat data.json | python3 -m json.tool

# Using jq (must be installed)
cat data.json | jq .

# With 4-space indent in jq
cat data.json | jq --indent 4 .

# Pretty print an API response
curl https://api.example.com/users | python3 -m json.tool

Indentation Style Guide

// Minified (hard to read)
{"user":{"id":1,"name":"Alice","roles":["admin","user"],"active":true}}

// Beautified with 2-space indent
{
  "user": {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Alice",
    "roles": [
      "admin",
      "user"
    ],
    "active": true
  }
}

# Python
import json
print(json.dumps(data, indent=2))

# Node.js
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2));

# PHP
echo json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

# jq (command line)
cat file.json | jq .

Also useful: JSON Formatter | JSON Minifier | JSON Diff | Validate JSON