Convert JSON to YAML Online — Free

How to convert JSON to YAML

1. 1

   Add your JSON file

   Drop or select a .json file. Files up to 50MB process locally in your browser — nothing uploaded.

2. 2

   Run the conversion

   Your JSON is parsed in the browser and re-emitted in YAML's whitespace-significant syntax. Strings, numbers, booleans, null, arrays, and nested objects translate cleanly using standard YAML 1.2 semantics. Long strings use block-style scalars (|) for readability.

3. 3

   Download your YAML

   One click saves the result as a .yaml file. Your original file stays on your device.

Why convert JSON to YAML?

YAML is the standard config format for Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, GitHub Actions workflows, GitLab CI pipelines, Ansible playbooks, Docker Compose files, and many other DevOps tools. It's also more human-readable than JSON — fewer braces and quotes, comments supported in the source (though JSON has none to translate). Converting JSON to YAML is a daily-use task when migrating between toolchains or templating configs.

Common JSON to YAML use cases

• Converting a JSON API response spec into a YAML Kubernetes ConfigMap or Secret for deployment
• Translating a Postman JSON collection into a YAML OpenAPI spec for API documentation
• Migrating Terraform JSON output into YAML for an Ansible playbook or Helm values file
• Generating YAML CI config (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) from JSON templates produced by a code generator

What file size to expect

A typical Kubernetes deployment spec as JSON is around 3-5 KB with all its nested metadata, spec, selector, and container definitions. The same as YAML is usually 2-3 KB — 20-30% smaller because YAML omits quotes around most strings and doesn't need braces or commas. For deeply nested configs the savings grow.

Technical notes: JSON → YAML

YAML 1.2 is the current spec (superset of JSON). Conversion maps JSON primitives directly: strings become unquoted strings (quoted only if they contain special characters or look like numbers), numbers stay numeric, true/false/null translate identically, arrays become sequences (- prefixed lines), and nested objects become indented blocks. Keys with special characters get quoted. YAML anchors/aliases aren't generated automatically (they'd require deduplication analysis). Output is YAML 1.2 flow-style sequence for arrays of primitives, block-style for nested structures.

Compatibility and browser support

Output YAML 1.2 is parseable by every mainstream YAML library: PyYAML (Python), go-yaml (Go), js-yaml (JavaScript), YAML Jackson (Java), YAML.NET (.NET), and Symfony YAML (PHP). It's accepted by Kubernetes, Helm, Ansible, GitHub Actions, and GitLab CI without modification.

JSON vs YAML

Frequently Asked Questions