XML Formatter & Beautifier

About XML Formatter

This free online XML formatter and beautifier helps you format messy XML with proper indentation, validate XML structure, or minify XML for production. All processing runs in your browser.

Features

• Format XML with customizable indentation (2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs)
• Validate XML structure and report parsing errors
• Minify XML (remove whitespace between tags)
• Handles CDATA sections, comments, processing instructions, and namespaces
• Option to collapse empty tags (<tag/> vs <tag></tag>)
• 100% client-side — no data leaves your browser

FAQ

What's the difference between XML and HTML?

XML is a strict markup language designed for data storage and transport. Unlike HTML, XML requires all tags to be closed, attribute values to be quoted, and is case-sensitive. XML is used for configuration files, data exchange (SOAP/REST APIs), and document formats (SVG, XHTML, RSS).

Does formatting change my XML?

Formatting only changes whitespace between tags. It doesn't modify tag names, attributes, text content, or CDATA sections. The formatted XML is semantically identical to the original.

What does XML validation check?

The validator checks for well-formedness: proper tag nesting, matching open/close tags, valid attribute syntax, and correct XML declaration. It does NOT validate against a schema (XSD/DTD) — it only checks structural validity.