Convert JSON to XML Online (and Back)

JSON and XML both represent structured data, but plenty of systems only speak one or the other — a modern API returns JSON while the legacy enterprise system downstream still expects XML, or vice versa. Rewriting that translation by hand every time is exactly the kind of tedious, error-prone work a converter should handle instead. JSON to XML (and back) does the conversion in either direction.

Why these two formats coexist at all

XML came first and is still entrenched in enterprise integrations, SOAP APIs, RSS/Atom feeds, and config formats for older systems — it's verbose but has native support for attributes, namespaces, and schema validation (XSD) that some industries still build around. JSON came later, optimized for exactly what modern web APIs need: compact, easy to parse in JavaScript, no attribute vs. element ambiguity. Neither format is going away, so converting between them stays a real, recurring task.

What actually maps between them

A JSON object's keys become XML element names, and nested objects become nested elements. Arrays are the trickiest part — JSON has a native list type, XML doesn't, so array items typically become repeated sibling elements with the same tag name. There's no single official standard for this mapping (unlike JSON itself, which has one spec), so different converters can make slightly different structural choices — worth a quick visual check on the output if you're feeding it into a system with strict schema expectations.

How to convert JSON to XML (or XML to JSON)

1. Open JSON to XML.
2. Paste your JSON or XML.
3. Pick a direction and convert — it happens instantly, entirely in your browser.
4. Copy or download the result.

Nothing you paste is uploaded — if you're converting a real API payload with customer or internal data in it, that data never leaves the tab you're working in.

A common real-world case

A third-party API returns XML, but your application and its data layer are built entirely around JSON. Rather than writing a one-off parser for that single integration, converting the response to JSON at the boundary keeps the rest of your codebase consistent — one format in, one format used everywhere internally.

Related developer tools

Once your data is in JSON, the JSON Formatter is the fastest way to actually read it — validated and properly indented. And if the payload contains Base64-encoded fields (common in XML-based SOAP APIs carrying binary attachments), the Base64 Encoder/Decoder handles those separately.