JSON ↔ YAML Converter

What are JSON and YAML?

JSON and YAML are two popular formats for representing structured data. JSON is compact and widely used in APIs and web applications. YAML is more human-friendly, with a clean indentation-based syntax that avoids brackets and quotes for most values — making it a popular choice for configuration files in tools like Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, and many others.

Despite their differences in appearance, both formats represent the same underlying data: objects, lists, strings, numbers, and booleans. This makes it straightforward to convert between them without losing any information.

What Does This Tool Do?

This tool converts data instantly between JSON and YAML in both directions. Paste JSON and get clean YAML output, or paste YAML and get valid JSON back. The conversion is real-time — no button needed.

How to Use This Tool

1. Select the conversion direction: JSON → YAML or YAML → JSON.
2. Paste your source data into the input area.
3. The converted result appears immediately in the output area.
4. Copy the result with the copy button.

Common Use Cases

• Moving from code to config: Convert a JSON API response to YAML to use in a configuration file.
• Working with Kubernetes or Docker: Those tools use YAML; quickly convert JSON examples found in documentation.
• Normalizing data formats: Your team uses YAML configs but receives JSON from an external service — convert on the fly.
• Editing and testing: Prefer writing in YAML for readability, then convert to JSON before sending to an API.

Side by Side: the Same Data in Both Formats

JSON:

{
  "name": "api-server",
  "replicas": 3,
  "enabled": true,
  "ports": [8080, 8443],
  "resources": { "memory": "512Mi" }
}

YAML:

name: api-server
replicas: 3
enabled: true
ports:
  - 8080
  - 8443
resources:
  memory: 512Mi

Same structure, same values — YAML trades brackets and quotes for indentation, which is why it dominates configuration files while JSON dominates APIs.

YAML Gotchas to Know

YAML’s minimal syntax hides a few traps that this converter helps you spot:

• The Norway problem: in older YAML versions, unquoted no, yes, on, off parse as booleans — so a country code no becomes false. Modern parsers (YAML 1.2) fixed this, but quoting ambiguous strings is still wise.
• Version numbers become floats: version: 1.20 parses as the number 1.2. Quote it ("1.20") to keep it a string.
• Indentation is structure: a single misplaced space changes the meaning of the document. Converting to JSON is a quick way to verify what a YAML file actually says versus what its indentation suggests.
• Tabs are forbidden: YAML indentation must use spaces. A stray tab character produces a parse error that can be hard to see.

Frequently Asked Questions