Format & Beautify HTML Online
Paste minified or machine-generated HTML and get it back with clean, readable indentation. Configurable indent size. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.
About this tool
Why developers use an HTML formatter
How HTML formatting improves code readability
Minified HTML is great for production — a single line, no whitespace, the smallest possible payload — but it's painful to read, diff, and debug. Running it through a formatter restores the indentation, line breaks, and nesting structure so you can see at a glance which tag closes which, which sections sit inside which parents, and where attributes belong.
The formatter doesn't change what the browser renders. It only changes what you see when you open the file in your editor. Browsers ignore the extra whitespace entirely.
When to use a beautifier vs. a minifier
Use a beautifier (this tool) when you're trying to read, audit, or hand-edit code you received minified — common when inspecting third-party widgets, debugging production bundles, or cleaning up AI-generated markup. Use a minifier when you're preparing code for production shipping. They're opposite ends of the same workflow.
For CSS, we have a companion tool — CSS Minifier — that strips comments and whitespace to shrink stylesheets by 30–70%.
HTML indentation best practices for teams
Pick a single indentation convention (2 spaces is the modern default; 4 spaces is common in older codebases) and enforce it via your editor's format-on-save or a pre-commit hook. Consistency matters more than the choice itself — mixed indentation makes diffs noisy and code review painful.
MarkupFox delivers every HTML build using Prettier-formatted, 2-space indented code with semantic class names. If you want hand-coded HTML from your Figma or PSD files, see our Design to HTML service.
FROM THE TEAM THAT BUILT THIS TOOL
We deliver HTML you can actually read.
MarkupFox hand-codes every HTML delivery to W3C standards — no minified soup, no AI-generated noise. What you receive is readable, commented, and ready for your dev team.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an HTML formatter and an HTML beautifier?
They're the same thing — different names for a tool that takes compressed or inconsistently indented HTML and restructures it with clean, readable whitespace. "Beautifier" is the older term; "formatter" is more common today.
Does formatting HTML affect how the browser renders it?
No. Browsers ignore whitespace outside of <pre> elements and inline content. Formatted and minified HTML render identically.
Can I use this to format email HTML?
Yes, but be cautious. Some email clients (notably Outlook) are sensitive to whitespace inside table cells and certain inline elements. Always test in an email client like Litmus or Email on Acid before sending.
Should I use 2-space or 4-space indentation?
It's a stylistic choice with no functional impact. 2 spaces is the more common convention in modern web codebases (the default in Prettier, ESLint, and most style guides) because deeply nested HTML stays readable on narrow screens. 4 spaces is more common in older codebases and some enterprise teams. Pick one and apply it consistently across your project.
Does this tool work with embedded CSS or JavaScript inside <style> and <script> tags?
Yes — content inside <style> and <script> tags is preserved as-is. The formatter handles the surrounding HTML structure but does not reformat CSS or JS. To beautify CSS or JavaScript, use a dedicated tool like Prettier in your editor.
Will this tool fix invalid or broken HTML?
No. The formatter assumes the input HTML is structurally valid — it adjusts whitespace and indentation but does not close unmatched tags, repair broken nesting, or correct invalid attributes. If your HTML has structural errors, run it through the W3C Validator first.