XML Beautifier & Minifier
Format XML with readable indentation or minify it for production.
What it's for
Readable or compressed XML in seconds
Compatible with any XML
Supports generic XML, SVG, RSS, SOAP, Maven/Spring configurations, and any XML-based dialect.
100% private
Your XML is processed entirely in your browser. Never sent to external servers.
Error detection
The formatter identifies malformed XML and points to the error line to help you fix it.
Instant
Beautifies or minifies instantly with no waiting, regardless of document size.
How it works
Three steps, no hassle
Paste your XML
Copy and paste your XML code into the left text area. It can be single-line compressed XML or XML with irregular indentation.
Choose the operation
Select 'Beautify' to add readable indentation and line breaks, or 'Minify' to compress the XML by removing unnecessary whitespace.
Copy the result
The formatted XML appears in the right panel. Use the copy button to take it to your clipboard or download it as an .xml file.
FAQ
Got questions?
The beautifier takes compact or poorly indented XML and reorganizes it with consistent indentation, typically 2 or 4 spaces per nesting level. This transforms an unreadable block of text into a visually clear hierarchical structure, making it easier to review, debug, and manually edit the XML.
Minification removes all whitespace, line breaks, and tabs that are not part of node content. It is useful when serving XML over a network (SOAP APIs, RSS/Atom feeds, remote configurations) to reduce transfer size. In large XML documents, minification can reduce size by 15% to 30%.
In most cases, no. Whitespace between tags (whitespace-only text nodes) are technically text nodes in the DOM, but well-written XML parsers and applications ignore them. The exception is nodes with xml:space='preserve' or when mixed content includes meaningful text between tags.
Both are human-readable data interchange formats. XML uses opening and closing tags (<key>value</key>), supports attributes, namespaces, comments, and formal schemas (XSD). JSON is more compact and maps directly to programming data structures. XML dominates in SOAP, SVG, RSS, Office Open XML (docx/xlsx), and legacy enterprise configurations.
XML is 'well-formed' if it follows syntax rules: a single root, properly closed and nested tags, quoted attributes, and escaped special characters (& < >). XML is 'valid' if it also conforms to a schema (DTD or XSD). This formatter detects malformed XML errors and highlights the error line in the editor.
XML: history, SGML, W3C 1998, and modern uses
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has its roots in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), an ISO standard from 1986 for electronic documents that also formed the basis of HTML. Tim Berners-Lee simplified SGML to create HTML in 1990. XML emerged when the W3C needed a format more structured than HTML but simpler than SGML: the first XML 1.0 specification was published by the W3C on February 10, 1998.
XML quickly became the de facto standard for enterprise data exchange. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), launched by Microsoft in 1999, used XML for web service messages. RSS 2.0 (2002) popularized XML for content syndication. The Office Open XML format (ISO 29500), which underlies Microsoft Office .docx and .xlsx files, is XML. SVG files for vector graphics on the web are pure XML.
Although JSON has displaced XML in modern REST APIs due to its lower verbosity, XML maintains strong positions in legacy enterprise systems, Java application configurations (Maven pom.xml, Spring context.xml), Android resources (layout XML), publishing documents (DITA, DocBook), and any context where namespaces, schema validation, or comments are essential.