Convert XML to JSON format instantly in your browser. No signup, no data uploads - your XML never leaves your device. Supports attributes, nested elements, SOAP responses, RSS feeds, WSDL, and complex XML structures.
An XML to JSON converter is an online tool that transforms data written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) into JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format - instantly, without writing any code. Whether you paste raw XML, a SOAP envelope, an RSS feed, a WSDL document, or any well-formed XML string, this free tool produces clean, properly structured JSON output in seconds.
XML and JSON are both widely-used data interchange formats, but they serve different ecosystems. XML dominated enterprise software for decades - it powers SOAP web services, configuration files, healthcare data standards like HL7, finance protocols like FpML, and e-commerce standards like UBL. JSON, on the other hand, has become the default format for modern REST APIs, JavaScript applications, NoSQL databases like MongoDB, and microservices architectures.
The need to convert XML to JSON arises constantly in professional workflows: consuming a SOAP API response in a React or Vue application, migrating legacy enterprise data to a modern database, processing RSS/Atom feed data in JavaScript, integrating old ERP systems with modern cloud services, or simply making bulky XML readable as a compact JSON object. This tool handles all of those scenarios - entirely within your browser.
Converting XML data to JSON format takes just a few seconds with this tool:
The entire process happens locally in your browser. No data is sent to any server at any point, making this tool safe for sensitive XML payloads like internal API responses, configuration data, or proprietary business data.
Here is a practical example showing how the converter handles attributes, nested elements, and repeated sibling tags - the three most common patterns you will encounter when parsing real-world XML data.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<person id="1">
<name>John Doe</name>
<age>30</age>
<address>
<street>123 Main St</street>
<city>New York</city>
<zipCode>10001</zipCode>
</address>
<hobbies>
<hobby>reading</hobby>
<hobby>swimming</hobby>
<hobby>coding</hobby>
</hobbies>
</person>{
"person": {
"@attributes": {
"id": "1"
},
"name": "John Doe",
"age": "30",
"address": {
"street": "123 Main St",
"city": "New York",
"zipCode": "10001"
},
"hobbies": {
"hobby": [
"reading",
"swimming",
"coding"
]
}
}
}Notice how the XML attribute id="1" is preserved under the @attributes key, and the three repeated <hobby> elements are automatically converted into a JSON array. This matches the conventions used by most production XML parsers and is compatible with libraries like Jackson, xml2js, and fast-xml-parser.
Understanding why you need to convert between these formats requires knowing what makes them different. Both XML and JSON represent hierarchical, structured data - but they were designed for different eras of software development.
| Feature | XML | JSON |
|---|---|---|
| Syntax | Tag-based (<element>) | Key-value pairs {"key": "value"} |
| Verbosity | Verbose - closing tags required | Compact and lightweight |
| Attributes | Native attribute support | No native attributes |
| Data types | Everything is text | String, number, boolean, null, array, object |
| Schema validation | XSD, DTD (powerful) | JSON Schema (external) |
| Common use | SOAP, enterprise, HL7, config files | REST APIs, JavaScript, NoSQL, mobile |
| Parse speed | Slower (larger payload) | Faster (smaller payload) |
| Comments | Supported (<!-- -->) | Not supported |
In practice, most modern web projects use JSON exclusively - it parses natively in JavaScript via JSON.parse(), produces smaller payloads over HTTP, and maps directly to objects in Python, JavaScript, Go, and virtually every modern language. XML remains indispensable in regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal), legacy enterprise systems, and anywhere SOAP web services are involved.
The following scenarios represent the most frequent real-world reasons developers, data analysts, and system integrators need to convert XML data to JSON format:
Many enterprise systems - banking platforms, ERP systems like SAP, insurance platforms, and government services - expose data exclusively via SOAP APIs that return XML. When building a modern React, Angular, or Vue frontend that consumes these services, converting the SOAP XML response to JSON is the first step. This tool lets you paste a raw SOAP envelope and instantly see the equivalent JSON object you will need to work with in JavaScript.
RSS and Atom feeds are XML documents. If you are building a news aggregator, content dashboard, or podcast app using a JavaScript framework, converting these feeds to JSON makes them far easier to render with modern tooling. Paste the feed XML directly into this tool to get a JSON structure ready for your application.
Older enterprise software often exports data in XML format - product catalogs, inventory exports, customer records, financial transactions. When migrating this data to a modern NoSQL database (MongoDB, Firestore, DynamoDB) or loading it into a REST API, you need the data in JSON. This converter handles nested XML hierarchies and repeated elements automatically, making data migration faster and less error-prone.
Java and .NET applications frequently use XML for configuration (Spring application context, Maven pom.xml, web.xml). When documenting these configurations or porting settings to a JSON-based system, converting the XML to JSON gives a clear picture of the configuration structure. This is especially useful when moving from a Java Spring Boot application with XML config to a Node.js service with JSON config.
When building or debugging APIs that bridge XML-based and JSON-based systems, being able to quickly visualize what the converted structure looks like saves significant development time. Paste a sample XML payload, see the exact JSON output, and verify your mapping logic is correct before writing any transformation code.
Data engineers building ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines often receive data in XML from upstream sources - government open data portals, third-party data vendors, or legacy databases. Converting XML to JSON is a common first step before loading data into analytics tools, data warehouses, or processing pipelines built in Python, Spark, or dbt.
Healthcare data often travels as HL7 XML messages. Financial data uses formats like FpML and FIXML. These industry standards are XML-based, but modern healthcare apps and fintech platforms increasingly expect JSON. Converting these structured XML messages to JSON helps developers understand the data model and prototype integrations quickly.
XML and JSON don't map one-to-one - XML has features like attributes, mixed content, namespaces, and CDATA sections that JSON has no direct equivalent for. This tool applies a set of clear, consistent parsing rules to handle every edge case:
@attributes object. All attributes of an XML element are grouped under a special @attributes key, preserving their names and values without collision with child elements.<item> or <hobby> tags), they are automatically collected into a JSON array. This is critical for correctly representing lists in SOAP responses and RSS feeds.#text key.<?xml version="1.0"?> processing instruction is correctly ignored - it is metadata, not data.This XML to JSON converter processes everything locally using the browser's built-in DOMParser API. No XML data is ever transmitted to a server, stored in a database, or logged. This makes the tool safe to use with sensitive data including:
Your work is also automatically saved to your browser's local storage for up to 30 days, so you can pick up where you left off without having to re-paste your XML. You can clear this at any time using the "Clear" button.
XML attributes are converted to a special @attributes object nested inside the element's JSON representation. For example, <person id="1" active="true"> becomes { "person": { "@attributes": { "id": "1", "active": "true" } } }. This convention is widely used by XML parsing libraries and keeps attribute data clearly separated from child element data.
Repeated sibling elements with the same tag name are automatically converted to a JSON array. So three <item> elements become "item": ["value1", "value2", "value3"]. This is essential for correctly representing lists in XML - a pattern very common in SOAP responses, product catalogs, and RSS feed items.
Yes. Paste any SOAP envelope directly - including namespaced elements like soap:Envelope, soap:Body, and the service-specific response elements - and the converter will parse the full structure into JSON. Namespace prefixes are preserved as part of the key names (e.g., "soap:Envelope"), which is standard behavior matching popular libraries like xml2js and Jackson's XmlMapper.
Yes, this tool is completely free with no registration required. There are no rate limits, no file size fees, and no premium tiers. You can use it as many times as needed, for any amount of XML data.
Yes. Because conversion happens in your browser using the native DOMParser API, performance depends on your device's available memory rather than server-side limits. Most typical XML files - even several MB in size - will convert in under a second. Very large files (tens of MB) may take a few seconds and benefit from using a modern desktop browser.
Live Preview mode converts your XML to JSON automatically as you type, with a 300ms debounce delay to avoid unnecessary re-processing on every keystroke. It's particularly useful when incrementally writing or editing XML and wanting to see the JSON output update in real time. You can toggle it off if you prefer to control when conversion happens explicitly.
Namespace prefixes (e.g., xs:, soap:, xsi:) are preserved in the JSON key names. Namespace declarations themselves (the xmlns: attributes) are treated as regular attributes and appear under the element's @attributes object. This means the JSON output is complete and lossless relative to the original XML structure.
XML uses opening and closing tags to define hierarchical data and supports attributes, namespaces, CDATA sections, and schema validation via XSD. JSON uses a simpler key-value syntax with native support for numbers, booleans, arrays, and null values. JSON is more compact, parses faster in most languages, and has become the dominant format for REST APIs, web applications, and NoSQL databases. XML remains essential for SOAP services, enterprise integrations, document-centric data, and regulated industry standards.
This tool is specifically designed for XML to JSON conversion. For the reverse direction - converting JSON to XML - look for a dedicated JSON to XML converter tool, which applies its own set of transformation rules to reconstruct XML elements from JSON keys and values.
Any well-formed XML is supported, including XML with declarations (<?xml version="1.0"?>), XML with namespaces (SOAP, WSDL, XSD), RSS and Atom feeds, Android layout XML, Maven and Spring configuration files, SVG (as XML), and custom XML schemas used by business applications. The only requirement is that the XML must be well-formed - all tags must be properly opened and closed, and the document must have a single root element.
If you work frequently with data format conversions, you may also find these related tools useful:
Discover more free developer tools that might interest you
Convert CSV data to JSON format
Convert YAML data to JSON format
Convert array data to visual image representation
Convert bitmap images to array data
Convert time between different timezones
Convert Word documents to HTML format