JSON Beautifier

JSON Escape / Unescape

Escape raw text into a valid JSON string, or unescape a JSON string back to readable text.

Choose a direction: readable text ↔ JSON string.

Raw Text
Escaped JSON String

Escape and unescape JSON strings

Escape wraps ordinary text in a JSON string value and encodes quotes, backslashes and control characters. Unescape decodes that string back into readable text. Select the direction above before pasting your input.

1

Choose Escape for raw text or Unescape for a JSON string.

2

Paste the input or load the matching example.

3

Copy the converted string or decoded text.

Before

"{\"name\":\"Alice\",\"active\":true}"

After

{"name":"Alice","active":true}
  • Decoding a string returns text. That text might contain a JSON document, but unescaping alone does not validate its structure.
  • Avoid blindly deleting backslashes: some are part of the original value. Decode one encoding layer at a time.
  • For a complete object or array encoded inside a string, the JSON Stringify tool gives you the corresponding forward operation.
JSON document to stringParse versus stringify

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 'escaping' a string for JSON mean?

Escaping wraps your text in double quotes and replaces special characters — like a literal quote, backslash, or newline — with their JSON-safe equivalents (\", \\, \n) so the text can be embedded as a valid JSON string value.

When do I need to escape a string for JSON?

When you're manually building a JSON payload and need to embed text that contains quotes, newlines, or backslashes — for example, pasting a multi-line log message or code snippet into a JSON field.

How is unescaping different from parsing JSON?

Unescape takes a single JSON string value (with or without the surrounding quotes) and decodes it back to plain, readable text — it doesn't require the input to be a full JSON document.

Can I paste text with emoji or non-English characters?

Yes. Unicode characters are preserved as-is; only the JSON-reserved characters (quotes, backslashes, control characters) get escaped.

Is this the same as JSON.stringify() in JavaScript?

Escaping a plain string works the same way as JSON.stringify(yourString) — this tool just gives you a quick way to do it without opening a console.