XML Formatter
Some XML arrives ready to read. Most does not — it turns up as one long line copied from an API response, a log file or a configuration export, with nested elements buried in the middle. Paste that line into Fixpio’s XML formatter and it comes back with its structure showing: two-space indentation at every level, each element on its own line. It works as a straightforward XML beautifier, and because the formatting happens in your browser, data lifted from a production system is never sent to a server.
Format XML
Paste XML below and get it back laid out with clean indentation.
What readable XML does for you
Layout will not fix a document — but it decides how quickly you can see what the document is doing.
Debugging at a glance
The usual reason to format XML mid-incident is simple: a line-per-element layout turns a wall of text into a checklist, and the wrong nesting or missing closing tag is suddenly the easiest thing on the page to spot.
One style, whoever wrote it
Documents copied from three different systems arrive in three different styles. Running them through the same formatter gives every file a single, predictable layout without a style argument.
Shareable in seconds
Formatted XML can go straight into documentation, a code review or a message to a colleague — no manual re-indenting, and no trip through a server on the way.
About this formatter
XML rarely gets messy on purpose. It grows element by element in an editor, gets flattened into one line by an API or a logging framework, or arrives from a system that never cared how it looked. An XML formatter online is the reset button for that build-up: paste the document in, and the elements separate, the indentation settles into two spaces per level, and you can beautify XML back into something a person can follow — before you change a single value or feed it to another system.
Fixpio’s tool keeps that job deliberately small. It is a basic XML beautifier rather than a schema validator: it will not check your document against an XSD, transform it, or suggest a better structure for it, and it says so on the page. What it offers instead is a quick XML pretty print that happens entirely on your own machine. For a document carrying real configuration details and real values, that local processing is the feature — the text is tidied where it sits and goes nowhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Honest answers about what formatting changes — and what it cannot do.
What does this tool actually do to XML?
It rearranges the layout of a document without touching its meaning. This formatter parses the XML, then rebuilds it with two-space indentation at every nesting level and each element on its own line, except elements with a single text child, which stay on one line. Element names, attributes and text content stay exactly as you pasted them; only the presentation changes.
How do I format XML on this page?
Paste your XML into the “XML input” box and press Format XML. The laid-out version appears in the “Formatted XML” box, ready to copy back into your editor, configuration file or ticket. There are no settings to choose first — the same two-space style is applied every time.
Does this formatter validate my XML?
Only in the basic sense that it must parse. If the document contains a parsing error, the tool shows a clear message instead of formatted output, so you know a tag is unclosed or mismatched. It does not validate against a schema or DTD, and it does not check whether element names or values are correct for your system.
Is it safe to paste a production document here?
Your XML is not sent anywhere: the formatting runs entirely in your web browser, on your own device, and nothing is uploaded or stored. That matters because real documents contain configuration details and sometimes sensitive values you would not paste into a server-side tool. When you close the tab, nothing of your document remains with us.
Will formatting change what my XML means?
The intention is layout only — line breaks and indentation — so the formatted document should behave like the original. Whitespace-only text between elements is skipped, and elements with a single text child are kept on one line. Read the output once before you deploy it, and keep your original until you are satisfied.
Is it free to use?
Yes. Formatting XML costs nothing, and there is no account, sign-up or software installation involved. Open the page, paste your XML, format it and take the result with you.