XML to JSON Converter

What is XML to JSON?

XML still powers many enterprise systems — SOAP APIs, RSS/Atom feeds, financial protocols, government data, configuration files. JSON is the modern API standard. Converting XML → JSON lets you work with legacy data in modern JavaScript apps, store XML in JSON-only databases (MongoDB, DynamoDB), or feed XML data into JSON-only tools (most analytics platforms).

Common scenarios: RSS feed parsing in JavaScript, SOAP API integration from a JSON-based backend, migrating XML configs to JSON for newer tools, XML log analysis, government open data (often XML), EDI / banking formats.

Conversion example

# XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<users>
  <user id="1">
    <name>Alice</name>
    <age>30</age>
  </user>
  <user id="2">
    <name>Bob</name>
  </user>
</users>

# JSON
{
  "users": {
    "user": [
      { "@id": "1", "name": "Alice", "age": "30" },
      { "@id": "2", "name": "Bob" }
    ]
  }
}

XML → JSON challenges

XML and JSON have fundamentally different data models. The conversion is “lossy” in subtle ways:

• Attributes vs elements: XML has both; JSON only has key-value. Convention: attributes prefixed with @ (e.g., “@id”)
• Single child vs array: <item>a</item> alone vs <item>a</item><item>b</item> produce different shapes — auto-detect or schema-aware mapping needed
• Mixed content: <p>Hello <b>world</b>!</p> (text + nested elements) is hard to represent in JSON
• XML namespaces: xmlns:ns=... prefixes are typically stripped or kept as keys with :
• Comments and processing instructions: usually stripped
• Numeric vs string types: XML stores everything as text; conversion may produce strings even for numbers

How to Use

1. Paste XML data, or upload a .xml file.
2. Click Convert.
3. Review JSON output — verify attribute handling and array shapes.
4. Copy or download as .json.

Privacy: Conversion runs in your browser. No upload.

Two Ways of Describing the Same Thing

XML and JSON both represent hierarchical data, but they were designed with different priorities. XML came from the document world, so it distinguishes between elements, attributes, and text content, and it supports namespaces, comments, and schemas. JSON came from JavaScript, so it has exactly six types and no ceremony.

That mismatch is what makes the conversion interesting. XML has concepts JSON simply does not, so something has to give.

Where the Two Models Do Not Line Up

Attributes versus child elements. XML can write the same information either as <user id="7"/> or <user><id>7</id></user>. JSON has only properties, so attributes have to be folded in somehow, usually with a naming convention.

Repeated elements. Two <item> elements become an array; one <item> becomes a single value. That means the shape of your JSON changes depending on how many records the XML happened to contain, which quietly breaks code that assumed an array.

Everything is text. XML has no native number or boolean type without a schema, so <count>5</count> is the string “5” unless something decides otherwise.

Mixed content. An element containing both text and child elements — common in documents — has no natural JSON equivalent at all.

Namespaces and comments. Neither exists in JSON. Prefixes usually survive as part of names; comments are dropped.

FAQ