XML Pretty Print Tool Online 2026 - Format & Indent XML
Pretty print and indent XML for better readability. Automatically format minified XML. 100% client-side privacy. Free online tool.
Key Features
- ✅ Auto-indent XML with customizable spacing
- ✅ Remove unnecessary whitespace
- ✅ Preserve XML content integrity
- ✅ Supports nested structures
How to Use
- Paste minified or poorly formatted XML
- Select your preferred indent size
- Click "Pretty Print"
- Copy the formatted output
Expert FAQ
- How is this different from the full XML Formatter?
Pretty Print is the fast path for the common case: paste minified or single-line XML, get consistently indented output back, with one indentation-width choice. The XML Formatter offers the same core re-indentation plus additional controls (attribute-per-line wrapping for attribute-heavy documents, namespace-aware options) for cases where the simple default isn't enough — reach for the Formatter if you need those extras, and Pretty Print for the everyday "just make this readable" case. - Will it break a document that mixes text and inline tags, like <p>Click <a>here</a> now</p>?
No — mixed-content elements (text interleaved with child tags) are detected and left as-is rather than re-wrapped with inserted line breaks, because XML whitespace inside mixed content can be meaningful, and blindly reformatting it would change what a downstream consumer parses as the actual text. Pure "data" XML (config files, API payloads, SOAP envelopes) — the common case — reformats freely since there's no text/tag interleaving to worry about. - Does it validate my XML first, or try to format broken input?
It requires well-formed input, the same as the full Formatter — pretty-printing happens after a real parse, not via regex-based whitespace insertion, so a syntax error surfaces as a parse failure rather than a garbled partial-format attempt. Run the XML Validator first if you're not sure the input is clean.
Technical Details
Pretty printing XML re-indents an already well-formed document for readability — it's the same underlying operation as the full XML Formatter, exposed with a simpler, single-option interface (indent width) rather than the Formatter's additional attribute-wrapping and namespace-handling controls. Both tools share the same core safety property: re-indentation happens after a genuine parse of the document, not through text-level whitespace insertion, so a malformed input surfaces as a specific parse error rather than producing plausible-looking but incorrect output. Like the full Formatter, Pretty Print detects mixed-content elements — text interleaved with inline child tags, common in documentation XML, XHTML fragments, or DocBook-style markup — and leaves them untouched rather than inserting line breaks that would change the parsed text content. The vast majority of real-world "pretty print this" requests are for pure data XML (SOAP envelopes, RSS feeds, config exports) where inter-tag whitespace carries no meaning, and those reformat completely freely. Use Pretty Print for the everyday case of turning minified or single-line XML into something reviewable; reach for the full XML Formatter when you specifically need attribute-per-line wrapping (useful for diffing attribute-heavy documents like Android layouts or MSBuild project files) or more granular namespace-handling options. Either way, if the input doesn't format cleanly, the XML Validator will point at exactly where the well-formedness check fails.