Developer Tools
Convert XML to JSON
XML To JSON for formatting, validating, converting, or cleaning JSON data in the browser.
Direct Answer
Use the XML To JSON Converter when a legacy API, RSS or Atom feed, SOAP response, or exported XML document needs to be consumed by JavaScript, a REST client, or any tool that expects JSON.
Decisions Every XML to JSON Converter Has to Make
XML and JSON model data differently, so turning XML into JSON always involves choices about attributes, repeated elements, and content that JSON has no exact equivalent for.
- XML attributes must be merged into the JSON object somehow, commonly as keys with a special prefix
- A repeated sibling element becomes a JSON array, but a single occurrence of the same element looks identical to a one-off field
- Mixed content, where an element has both text and child elements, does not map cleanly to a plain JSON value
- XML namespaces and prefixes typically stay in the JSON key name as-is unless explicitly stripped
Content That Needs Special Handling
A few XML constructs exist specifically because they have no JSON equivalent, so it helps to know how your converter resolves them before relying on the output.
- CDATA sections are unwrapped into plain text in the resulting JSON string
- Self-closing empty elements can become null, an empty string, or an empty object depending on the converter
- Whitespace-only text between elements, used only for XML formatting, should be ignored rather than turned into stray values
- Comments in the XML are discarded entirely since JSON has no comment syntax
How to Use XML To JSON
- Paste or type your content into the input box.
- The transformed result appears instantly in the result panel below.
- Click Copy result to copy the output to your clipboard.
- Download .txt saves the transformed text as a file.
- Reset clears everything and lets you start over.
Reference
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Transform pasted text into a cleaner or different format. |
| Input | Text, lines, lists, or copied content. |
| Result | Transformed text ready to copy or download. |
| Best for | Cleanup, formatting, list preparation, and copy-paste workflows. |
| Category | Developer Tools |
| Works on | Desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why do XML attributes get a special prefix in the converted JSON?
Since JSON only has plain key-value pairs and no separate concept of attributes versus child elements, most converters prefix attribute-derived keys with an @ symbol to distinguish them from keys that came from child elements. This is a common convention, not a formal standard, so different converters may use a different symbol or a nested attributes object instead.
Why did one field become an array and another field with the same name did not?
This is the classic ambiguity in XML to JSON conversion: if an element name appears more than once as a sibling, most converters turn it into a JSON array, but if it appears only once in a particular document, it becomes a plain object or value instead of a single-item array. This means the shape of your JSON can change between documents just because the count of a repeated element changed.
How do I make sure a field is always an array, even with only one item?
You generally need to normalize this after conversion, by explicitly wrapping the value in an array if it is not already one, since the converter cannot know your intent from a single XML document alone. Some converters offer a force-array option for specific element names if you configure it ahead of time.
What happens to an XML element that has both text and child elements, called mixed content?
This is one of the harder cases, since a JSON object holds either a set of keys or nothing else, not some text plus some structured children in the same slot. Converters typically either drop the loose text, put it in a special key, or move all text into children only, so mixed-content XML often needs manual review of the resulting JSON rather than a fully automatic conversion.
Why does my converted JSON have a lot of text-content keys?
A dedicated text key is a common convention converters use to hold an element's direct text content when that element also has attributes or child elements, since plain JSON cannot represent an object with both attributes and a text value any other way. If an element has only text and no attributes or children, it usually converts to a plain string value instead, without the wrapper key.
Does converting XML to JSON preserve CDATA sections?
The CDATA wrapper itself is not JSON's concern, so the raw text inside a CDATA block is extracted and placed as a plain JSON string, with the CDATA markers stripped away. If the CDATA content included characters like angle brackets or ampersands that were only valid because of the CDATA wrapper, they appear as literal characters in the resulting JSON string.
Why do empty XML elements show up differently across tools?
There is no single agreed convention: some converters render a self-closing empty element as null, others as an empty string, and others as an empty object. Check your specific converter's behavior and normalize the value afterward if your downstream code depends on a particular representation.
What happens to XML namespaces when converting to JSON?
Namespace prefixes are usually kept as part of the JSON key name exactly as written, so an element with a namespace prefix becomes a key with that prefix included, rather than being resolved to its full namespace URI or stripped automatically. If you need namespace-aware keys, you will typically need to handle that resolution yourself after conversion.