Decode JSON or a JSON-encoded string into a readable, collapsible tree. Auto-detects quoted escaped strings, validates as it parses, and lets you prettify, minify, escape or unescape — all in your browser.
No installation, no signup. Results in milliseconds.
Related operations that are easy to confuse.
| Operation | What it does | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Decode / Parse | Turns JSON text into structured data | Read an API response into objects |
| Encode / Stringify | Turns data into a JSON string | Send data in a request body |
| Escape | Makes a string safe inside JSON | Embed text with quotes/backslashes |
| Unescape | Reverses escaping back to raw text | Read a doubly-encoded string |
JSON decoding is the process of converting JSON text into structured, in-memory data you can read and navigate. A decoder validates the syntax, then builds objects, arrays, and values — here shown as a collapsible tree so nested data is easy to explore.
Sometimes JSON arrives inside another string — a quoted value with backslash-escaped quotes (common in logs and nested API fields). With Auto-detect on, this tool removes the outer quotes, unescapes the content, and parses the real JSON underneath.
The trickiest JSON to read is JSON that has been turned into a string — sometimes more than once. Decoding unwinds those layers back into clean, structured data.
APIs frequently return a JSON field whose value is itself a JSON document stored as a string, so it arrives full of \" and \\ escapes. Pasting that here strips the escapes and rebuilds the real structure, which you can then read in the tree. To go the other way — produce such a string — use JSON Encode or JSON Stringify.
Occasionally a value is encoded twice (a string containing a string containing JSON), which is why one decode pass can leave you with something that still looks escaped. Decode again and it resolves. If a payload never fully resolves, it usually means a quote or backslash was mangled upstream — run it through the JSON Parser to find the exact position.
Decoding and unescaping both remove escape sequences; parsing then interprets the result into data. This tool does all of it in one step and shows the outcome as a tree, so you rarely need to chain the tools by hand. For a final clean copy, send the result to the Pretty Print tool.
Decoding shows up wherever JSON data needs to be read.
Everything developers ask about decoding JSON.
JSON.parse(). Decoding also commonly implies handling a JSON-encoded string — a string value that itself contains escaped JSON — by unescaping it first, then parsing the result.Hands-on articles from our blog.
All free, all browser-based, no signup required.