CodeBeautifyXML Formatter & Beautifier
Format, beautify, validate, or minify XML online. Indent nested elements, normalize self-closing tags, and turn minified XML into a readable structure. Invalid XML is reported with a detailed parser error.
What is XML?
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a text-based format for representing structured, hierarchical data using custom tags that you define yourself. Unlike HTML, XML has no fixed vocabulary — you decide what <invoice>, <customer>, or <product> mean for your data. It's still widely used for configuration files, SOAP web services, RSS/Atom feeds, and document formats like SVG and DOCX (which is itself a zipped bundle of XML files).
Why format XML?
- Beautify — API responses and exported files often arrive as one dense line; indentation reveals the nesting structure at a glance.
- Self-closing normalization — some tools expect empty elements as
<tag/>, others expect<tag></tag>; converting between the two avoids compatibility surprises. - Minify — strips whitespace between tags before sending XML over a network or storing it compactly.
Example
| Minified | Beautified |
|---|---|
<root><item id="1">Hi</item></root> | <root> |
Frequently asked questions
How do I format XML online?
Paste your XML into the input box and click Beautify. The formatter indents nested elements and closing tags instantly, so the document structure is easy to follow.
How do I beautify XML?
Beautifying XML adds indentation and line breaks between tags. Click Beautify, pick 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or a tab, and the beautifier reformats minified XML immediately in your browser.
Why is my XML reported as invalid?
The most common causes are a mismatched or unclosed tag, an unescaped & or < inside text content, multiple root elements, or attribute values that aren't quoted. This tool uses the browser's own XML parser, so any error message matches what a real XML consumer would report.
Is XML the same as HTML?
No. XML is a strict, general-purpose markup format for structured data with no predefined tags — you define your own. HTML has a fixed set of tags for describing web pages and is more forgiving of malformed markup. For HTML specifically, use our dedicated HTML Formatter.