How to Format JSON in VS Code, Terminal, and Online

Format JSON in VS Code

The easiest way - no plugins needed:

1. Open your JSON file
2. Press Shift+Alt+F (Windows/Linux) or Shift+Option+F (Mac)
3. Or right-click → Format Document

For JSON in a non-.json file, use Ctrl+Shift+P → "Format Document With..." → JSON Language Features.

Format JSON in the Terminal

Using jq (recommended)

# Install: brew install jq (mac) or apt install jq (linux)
cat data.json | jq '.'

# From a string
echo '{"name":"Alice","age":30}' | jq '.'

Using Python (built-in)

echo '{"name":"Alice"}' | python3 -m json.tool

# Or from a file
python3 -m json.tool data.json

Using Node.js

node -e "process.stdin||(d='');process.stdin.on('data',c=>d+=c);process.stdin.on('end',()=>console.log(JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(d),null,2)))" < data.json

Format JSON in JavaScript

const ugly = '{"name":"Alice","age":30}'
const pretty = JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(ugly), null, 2)
console.log(pretty)

Online - Fastest Option

For quick one-off formatting without opening a terminal or IDE, use our JSON Formatter - paste and format instantly with syntax highlighting, error detection, and tree view.