JSON to YAML Converter

How to convert JSON to YAML

1. Paste JSON into the left box, drop a .json file on it, or press Upload. If the JSON has an error, the status line shows the line and column; format and validate the JSON first if it needs more cleaning up.
2. The YAML appears as you type. Choose 2 or 4 spaces, and whether to quote all strings.
3. Copy it into your config, or Download .yaml.

JSON to YAML example

A service definition in JSON:

{
  "name": "checkout",
  "image": "shop/checkout:2.4.1",
  "replicas": 2,
  "env": { "LOG_LEVEL": "info", "CACHE": true },
  "ports": [8080, 9090]
}

converts to this YAML. Braces and quotes disappear, nesting is shown by indentation, and array items start with a dash:

name: checkout
image: shop/checkout:2.4.1
replicas: 2
env:
  LOG_LEVEL: info
  CACHE: true
ports:
  - 8080
  - 9090

Why some strings are quoted

YAML guesses types from how a value looks, and older YAML 1.1 parsers (still used by many tools) guess more than you might expect. The converter quotes any string that could be misread, so the YAML means exactly what the JSON meant:

{
  "country": "NO",
  "enabled": "yes",
  "version": "1.10",
  "zip": "02134",
  "released": "2026-09-25",
  "empty": "",
  "motd": "Welcome!\nMaintenance on Sunday."
}

country: 'NO'
enabled: 'yes'
version: '1.10'
zip: '02134'
released: '2026-09-25'
empty: ''
motd: |-
  Welcome!
  Maintenance on Sunday.

• 'NO' and 'yes': unquoted, YAML 1.1 reads them as false and true (the "Norway problem").
• '1.10': unquoted, it becomes the number 1.1, so a version string would change.
• '02134' and '2026-09-25': unquoted, some parsers read an octal number or a date.
• The multi-line message becomes a |- block, which keeps the line break and drops the final newline, like the original string.

Kubernetes and multi-document YAML

Kubernetes, Helm and many CI tools accept several YAML documents in one file, separated by ---. Put the resources in a JSON array and tick Top-level array → separate documents:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: web
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: web
spec:
  replicas: 2

Without that option, a top-level array becomes a single YAML list.

What changes between JSON and YAML

• Nothing is lost. Strings, numbers, true/false, null, objects and arrays all have a direct YAML form, and key order is kept.
• Empty objects and arrays are written as {} and [].
• Comments can be added afterwards; JSON has none to carry over.
• Unicode is written as is, not escaped.

To go back, the YAML to JSON converter turns YAML (including comments, anchors and multiple documents) into JSON. To look through a large JSON file before converting, open it in the JSON viewer.

Convert JSON to YAML on the command line

• yq (mikefarah): yq -p json -o yaml input.json > output.yaml
• Python (PyYAML): python -c 'import sys, json, yaml; print(yaml.safe_dump(json.load(sys.stdin), sort_keys=False))' < input.json. Without sort_keys=False, PyYAML sorts the keys alphabetically.

Frequently asked questions