XML Formatter & Beautifier
Beautify and pretty-print XML online — paste your markup, choose 2-space, 4-space, or tab indentation, and get clean, readable output instantly.
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- Output Characters
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Your XML is formatted locally in your browser and is not uploaded to a server.
CleanTextly's XML Formatter beautifies messy, minified, or inconsistently indented XML into clean, readable markup — entirely in your browser. "XML formatter," "XML beautifier," and "pretty-print XML" all describe the same formatting task: paste your XML, pick an indentation style, and get consistently structured markup back, with the XML declaration, comments, CDATA sections, and entity references preserved exactly. Because XML is stricter than HTML, malformed input — mismatched tags, an unterminated attribute, an invalid XML declaration — is reported as a clear error instead of being silently guessed at.
Features
Consistent Indentation
Nested elements are indented consistently based on their depth, so deeply nested XML is easy to scan at a glance.
Compact Where It Should Be
An element containing only text stays on one line — e.g. <name>John</name> — and mixed content like <p>Hello <b>World</b>!</p> stays inline too, rather than being split across several lines and picking up whitespace that was never there.
XML Declaration, Comments & CDATA Preserved
The <?xml ... ?> declaration, comments, and CDATA sections are kept exactly as written — CDATA content in particular is never reformatted or reinterpreted as markup, even if it contains characters like < and > .
Self-Closing Elements Stay Self-Closing
An element written as <item id="1"/> is formatted as <item id="1"/>, not expanded into <item id="1"></item>.
Choice of Indentation
Format with 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs, to match your project's style.
Clear Errors for Malformed XML
XML is stricter than HTML — a mismatched closing tag, an unterminated attribute, or a duplicated XML declaration produces a specific, readable error instead of guessed-at output.
100% Private
Your XML is formatted locally in your browser and is never uploaded, logged, or sent to a server.
How to Use
- 1
Paste your XML
Add the XML you want to format into the XML Input box — it formats automatically once you paste.
- 2
Choose an indentation style
Pick 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or Tab from the Indentation selector.
- 3
Click Format after editing
If you type or edit the XML by hand, click Format to refresh the output — formatting doesn't run on every keystroke.
- 4
Copy or download
Copy the formatted XML to your clipboard, or download it as an .xml file.
Example
Beautifying Minified XML
Minified XML
<root><item><name>John</name><age>25</age></item><item><name>Jane</name><age>30</age></item></root>
Formatted XML
<root>
<item>
<name>John</name>
<age>25</age>
</item>
<item>
<name>Jane</name>
<age>30</age>
</item>
</root>Common Use Cases
Reading Minified XML
Paste an XML API response, config file, or export to see its actual structure instead of one long unreadable line.
Cleaning Up Hand-Written XML
Beautify inconsistently indented XML written or edited by hand into a clean, uniform style.
Reviewing XML Feeds & Configs
Format an RSS/Atom feed, SOAP payload, Maven pom.xml, or Android layout XML before reviewing or debugging it.
Catching Structural Mistakes
A mismatched or unterminated tag surfaces as a clear error, helping you spot structural problems before using the XML elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
An XML formatter (also called an XML beautifier or XML pretty printer) takes XML data and rewrites it with consistent indentation and line breaks, making it easier to read without changing what the document actually contains.
Paste your XML into the XML Input box — it formats automatically. If you edit it afterward, click Format to refresh the result, all in your browser with no upload required.
"Beautify" and "format" mean the same thing here — paste your XML and it's pretty-printed instantly with consistent indentation.
There isn't really one — "XML formatter," "XML beautifier," and "XML pretty printer" are different names for the same kind of tool: something that reformats XML with consistent indentation and structure.
Yes. Like every tool on CleanTextly, it's completely free to use with no sign-up required.
No. Formatting happens entirely in your browser — your XML is never uploaded, logged, or sent to a server.
XML is strict about well-formedness. A mismatched or unterminated tag, an unterminated attribute value, a malformed comment or CDATA section, or more than one XML declaration will show a specific error rather than a guessed-at, potentially misleading result.
Formatting checks that your XML is well-formed enough to safely restructure — it isn't a full schema/DTD validator, so formatted XML can still fail validation against a specific schema even though it formats successfully.
Pretty-printing XML means rewriting it with line breaks and indentation added so its nested structure is easy to read — it's the same result this tool produces when you format your XML, just described with a different verb.
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Want to learn how XML beautification works? Read our guide to beautifying XML online.