How to minify JSON

Minifying JSON removes spaces and line breaks. It does not change the data—only the formatting.

Before and after

Pretty printed:

{
  "a": 1,
  "b": [1, 2, 3],
  "c": "hello"
}

Minified:

{"a":1,"b":[1,2,3],"c":"hello"}

When minifying helps

• Lower bandwidth for API requests/responses
• Smaller storage when saving JSON blobs
• Copy/paste convenience for short payloads

When not to minify

• When humans need to read or review the JSON
• When debugging errors (pretty print first)

Related: Pretty print JSON · Compare JSON