XML Minifier

XML Full Form

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language - a structured text format used for configuration files, document storage (OpenDocument, OOXML), enterprise message payloads (SOAP), feeds (RSS, Atom), and many other data interchange scenarios. XML files are typically pretty-printed with indentation and comments for humans; minification strips those away to reduce size.

What this tool does

• Strip comments - Removes <!-- ... --> comments.
• Collapse whitespace - Removes indentation and newlines between tags and inside text nodes, and reduces the gaps between attributes inside a tag to one space.
• Keep attribute values exactly - Everything between the quotes of an attribute is copied byte-for-byte.
• Preserve CDATA - Contents of <![CDATA[...]]> sections are kept byte-for-byte.
• Respect xml:space="preserve" - Text inside elements marked with this attribute, and inside their children, is left untouched.
• Byte savings - See original vs minified byte counts and percentage saved.

When you need an XML minifier

• API payloads - SOAP, legacy REST, and SAP/Oracle interfaces still exchange XML. Minified payloads travel faster.
• Configuration files - Spring, Ant, Maven, and Android manifests where you want a compact committed version.
• Feeds - RSS and Atom feeds served at scale benefit from every byte saved.
• Sitemaps - Search-engine sitemaps have a 50 MB limit; minifying lets you pack more URLs per file.

How to use it

1. Paste XML into Input XML, or click Upload File to open an .xml, .rss or .atom file. Load Sample loads a small RSS feed.
2. The output on the right refreshes as you type. Click Minify to run it again.
3. Compare the original and minified sizes in the stats line.
4. Click Copy, or Download to save minified.xml.
5. Need to read a compressed file? Paste it and click Beautify to put each element on its own indented line.

A worked example

Here is a small price list, 153 bytes as it would sit in a file with indentation:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- price list --> <items> <item sku="A1"> <name>Blue mug</name> <price currency="INR">249</price> </item> </items>

The minifier returns <?xml version="1.0"?><items><item sku="A1"><name>Blue mug</name><price currency="INR">249</price></item></items>, which is 112 bytes, about 27% smaller. The declaration and every attribute survive, the comment is gone, and the three spaces typed between "Blue" and "mug" are now one.

How it decides what to remove

The tool reads the document piece by piece: tags with their attributes, comments, CDATA sections, processing instructions, the DOCTYPE and text. It removes comments, deletes whitespace that sits only between two tags, and reduces any other run of spaces, tabs and newlines in text to a single space. Attribute values, CDATA and text under xml:space="preserve" are copied unchanged. It never decodes entities, so & and © stay exactly as written, and it does not validate the document, so it will not complain about a malformed file. Validate important files separately.

Where whitespace really matters

• Text content - if an element's text must keep repeated spaces or line breaks, such as an address block or a poem, mark it with xml:space="preserve" or wrap it in CDATA before minifying.
• Attribute values - kept byte for byte, so note="x y" keeps all three spaces and an attribute that holds formatted text is safe.
• Mixed content - in document formats where text and tags mix, the gap between two adjacent inline elements is removed, which can join words together.
• Signatures - an XML digital signature covers the exact bytes. Minify before signing, never after.

Privacy

Everything runs locally in your browser. Your XML is never sent to our servers. You can minify internal configs, SOAP envelopes with auth tokens, or private document payloads without anything leaving your machine.