Online XML Formatter and Code Beautifier
Paste your unformatted XML payloads or sitemaps here to instantly beautify them with perfect indentation. This smart code formatter cleans up messy data streams and configuration files, making your enterprise API debugging a total breeze!
XML Formatting Features
Any Depth Structure: Deeply nested documents, attributes with spaces, and complex schemas all formatted correctly
Smart Token Parsing: Tag-aware engine distinguishes opening, closing, self-closing, and processing instruction tags correctly
One-Click Download: Save formatted output as data.formatted.xml directly
100% Browser-Based: Your XML data never leaves your device, total privacy guaranteed
Self-Closing Tag Support: <tag/> elements handled correctly and never double-indented
Syntax Highlighting: Color-coded XML editor for comfortable reading after formatting
One-Click Copy: Copy clean XML to clipboard for any pipeline, editor, or system
Sample XML Included: Test immediately with a real catalog XML document, no prep needed
Perfect for developers working with APIs, config files, SOAP services, RSS/Atom feeds, SVG files, Android resources, Maven POMs, Spring configs, and any system that exchanges data in XML format.
Frequently Asked Questions
An XML formatter (also called an XML beautifier or XML pretty printer) takes collapsed, minified, or unreadable XML and restructures it with consistent indentation and line breaks making nested elements, attributes, and document structure instantly readable. You need one when debugging API responses, reading config files, inspecting SOAP service payloads, working with RSS feeds, reviewing Android resource files, or inheriting any XML that was generated programmatically without formatting. Our tool formats any XML in one click, paste, format, copy or download.
Paste your minified or collapsed XML into the editor and click 'Format XML'. The tool tokenizes the entire document, identifies every opening tag, closing tag, self-closing element, and text node, then applies 2-space indentation based on the nesting depth, all in under a second. A single-line document like <catalog><book><title>Guide</title></book></catalog> becomes a clean, multi-level indented structure instantly. Click 'Insert Sample' for a live before-and-after with a real XML catalog document.
XML and HTML share angle-bracket tag syntax but have key structural differences that affect formatting. HTML has a fixed set of void elements (<img>, <br>, <meta>) that are never self-closing; XML has no fixed void elements, any tag can be self-closing with /> syntax. HTML has optional closing tags and loose parsing; XML is strictly well-formed and every opened tag must be closed or self-closed. Our formatter handles both correctly: HTML void elements are recognized by name, while XML self-closing tags are detected by the /> ending, so neither type is incorrectly indented or broken across lines.
Yes, our formatter works on any well-formed XML, regardless of schema or vocabulary. SOAP envelopes (<soap:Envelope>, <soap:Body>) are formatted correctly with namespace prefixes preserved. RSS and Atom feeds (<channel>, <item>, <entry>) are indented cleanly across any nesting depth. Maven POM files (<project>, <dependencies>) and Spring XML configs (<beans>, <bean>) are formatted accurately. Android resource files (<resources>, <string>, <color>) and SVG files are handled by the same token-aware engine. Any valid XML input produces clean, readable output.
Simple regex-based XML formatters break on real-world documents because they can't distinguish between self-closing tags, text nodes that should stay inline, and processing instructions that belong at the document root. Our formatter uses a token-based parser: it splits the document into a sequence of typed tokens, tracks indent level across the token stream, and applies formatting rules based on each token's structural role, not just its surface appearance. The result is correctly formatted XML across any schema, any nesting depth, and any combination of element types, without breaking attributes, CDATA sections, or namespace declarations.