JSON Formatter & Validator

How this tool checks your JSON

This tool runs your text through the browser's own built in JSON parser, the same one JavaScript uses internally, so a file that passes here will parse correctly anywhere JSON.parse is used. If the text is not valid JSON, the exact error message is shown, including the line and column where the parser gave up, so you can jump straight to the problem instead of scanning the whole file by eye.

Format versus minify

Formatting rewrites valid JSON with consistent indentation, either two spaces, four spaces or a tab, which makes nested objects and arrays easy to read and compare. Minify does the opposite: it strips every unnecessary space and line break, producing the smallest possible valid JSON, which is useful when you are pasting a payload into a config file or an API request body where file size matters more than readability.

The most common JSON mistakes

Almost every JSON error comes down to a handful of causes: a trailing comma after the last item in an object or array, single quotes instead of double quotes around strings and keys, an unquoted key, or a missing closing brace or bracket. JSON is stricter than JavaScript object literals on purpose, since that strictness is what makes it reliably parseable across every language and platform.