Development Tools
HTML Formatter — Beautify & Indent Markup Instantly
Beautify messy or minified HTML free with automatic 2-space indentation. Paste, format, and copy clean markup in seconds — no signup required.
TL;DR: Paste minified or poorly indented HTML, click Format, and get properly nested markup with 2-space indentation and correct handling of self-closing tags like <br>, <img>, and <input> — processed entirely in your browser.
Reviewed by FYN Tools Editorial · Guides ·
Privacy & processing: HTML formatting runs in your browser using a tokenizer that reads your markup and re-indents it. Nothing you paste is sent to a server.
HTML Formatter
Beautify messy or minified HTML free with automatic 2-space indentation. Paste, format, and copy clean markup in seconds — no signup required.
- Inputs
- HTML markup pasted or typed into the editor, including minified or single-line HTML
- Outputs
- Beautified HTML with 2-space indentation per nesting level and correct self-closing tag handling
- Processing
- Client-side (browser)
- Limits
- This tool beautifies/indents markup; it does not minify or validate HTML against a spec
Quick steps
- Paste your HTML — minified, copy-pasted from view-source, or just poorly indented — into the input box.
- Click Format to re-indent the markup with two spaces per nesting level.
- Review the formatted output on the right or below the input.
- Click Copy to grab the beautified HTML for pasting into your editor.
- Click Reset if you want to clear both the input and output and start over.
- Two-space auto-indentation
- Correct self-closing tag handling
- One-click copy of formatted output
- Reset button to clear input and output
Data input / output
| Inputs | HTML markup pasted or typed into the editor, including minified or single-line HTML |
|---|---|
| Outputs | Beautified HTML with 2-space indentation per nesting level and correct self-closing tag handling |
| Formats | HTML text; recognizes standard self-closing tags (br, hr, img, input, meta, link, area, base, col, embed, source, track, wbr) |
| Limits | This tool beautifies/indents markup; it does not minify or validate HTML against a spec |
| Processing | Client-side (browser) |
How to Use the HTML Formatter
- Paste your HTML — minified, copy-pasted from view-source, or just poorly indented — into the input box.
- Click Format to re-indent the markup with two spaces per nesting level.
- Review the formatted output on the right or below the input.
- Click Copy to grab the beautified HTML for pasting into your editor.
- Click Reset if you want to clear both the input and output and start over.
What is a HTML Formatter?
This formatter tokenizes your HTML into opening tags, closing tags, and text content, then rebuilds it with two-space indentation that increases after each opening tag and decreases before each closing tag. It correctly recognizes standard self-closing tags — br, hr, img, input, meta, link, area, base, col, embed, source, track, and wbr — so it does not add unnecessary indentation after them.
It is a beautifier, not a linter: it will indent whatever tag structure you give it without checking whether the HTML is spec-valid or whether tags are properly closed. That makes it fast for cleaning up minified markup pulled from a live site’s view-source, or for making a single-line HTML string readable before you edit it.
Minified or copy-pasted HTML often arrives as one long line with no indentation, making nested structure impossible to read at a glance. This formatter strips redundant whitespace between tags, then walks the token stream tracking nesting depth, adding two spaces per level for each opening tag and removing two spaces before each matching closing tag. Self-closing tags do not increase the indent level since they have no matching closing tag to track.
How it works
HTML Formatter reads your input from the panel above, applies two-space auto-indentation, and shows a result you can copy or download. Options stay visible so you can iterate without reloading the page.
Explore more tools on our site.
Common Use Cases & Examples
- Debugging a live page’s markup: Copy HTML from view-source, paste it here to see proper indentation, and quickly spot which element wraps which without manually counting tags.
- Preparing code for documentation: Beautify a minified snippet before including it in a tutorial or internal wiki so readers can follow the structure at a glance.
- Pre-edit cleanup: Format a single-line HTML export from a page builder before manually editing it in a text editor.
Input / Output Examples
Input
Value in source format (e.g. 100 or "text")
Output
Converted value in target format
Frequently Asked Questions
Will formatting change my HTML functionality?+
No, HTML formatting only changes whitespace and indentation for better readability. It doesn't alter the structure or functionality of your HTML code.
Can I format minified HTML?+
Yes, the tool can take compressed or minified HTML and expand it with proper formatting and indentation for easier reading and editing.
Does it work with HTML attributes and inline styles?+
Yes, the formatter preserves all HTML attributes, inline styles, and JavaScript while organizing the code structure for better readability.
Can I format HTML with embedded CSS and JavaScript?+
Yes, the tool handles HTML documents with embedded CSS in <style> tags and JavaScript in <script> tags while maintaining proper formatting.
Key Features
- Two-space auto-indentation
- Correct self-closing tag handling
- One-click copy of formatted output
- Reset button to clear input and output
Benefits
Turn unreadable single-line HTML into properly nested, readable markup in one click.
Spot structural nesting issues visually instead of counting tags manually.
Prepare clean code snippets for documentation or tutorials quickly.
When to Use HTML Formatter
- Cleaning up HTML copied from a browser’s view-source or DevTools that arrived as one unreadable line
- Making minified production HTML readable before debugging a layout issue
- Formatting a code snippet before pasting it into documentation or a tutorial
- Quickly checking whether tags are nested the way you expect by seeing the indentation visually
Advantages
- Handles standard self-closing tags correctly without extra configuration
- Two-space indentation matches common HTML style guides
- Runs entirely in your browser with instant results
- One-click copy and reset controls
Tips
- This tool beautifies structure but does not validate HTML — run a validator separately if you need spec compliance checked.
- Self-closing tags like <img> and <br> will not increase indentation for what follows, since they have no closing tag.
- Format before diffing two versions of a page’s markup so the diff reflects real structural changes, not just whitespace.
Common Mistakes
Expecting the formatter to fix invalid or unclosed tags — it indents based on the tags you provide, it does not correct them.
Assuming this tool minifies HTML — it only beautifies (adds indentation); use a dedicated minifier for the opposite.
Pasting HTML with inline scripts expecting JavaScript-specific formatting — this tool focuses on tag structure.
Summary
Paste minified or messy HTML above and get properly indented, readable markup in one click — the tool beautifies structure only, so pair it with a validator if you also need spec compliance checked.