XML validator (well-formedness)
Paste XML before sending it to a system or gateway to find the error that stops it from being read.
Loading the tool…
Processing and privacy: The result is calculated inside your browser and your data is not sent to any server.
How to use it
- Enter xml text.
- The result appears straight away and updates as you edit.
- Copy the result, or copy a link that keeps the same values to share it.
How it is calculated
The parser walks the document and applies the XML 1.0 well-formedness rules: one root element, every opening tag closed in order, attributes as name="value" without repeats, every & starting a defined entity, no text outside the root. The first violation is shown with its line and column.
Example
Result: Result: Well-formed; Root element: catalog; Elements: 9.
Limits and caveats
- It checks well-formedness only, not validity against an XSD or DTD schema.
- Only the first error is shown, fix it and check again to see the next one.
- Entities declared inside a DOCTYPE are treated as undefined.
Questions about this tool
Well-formed versus schema-valid?
Well-formed means the XML grammar rules are met. Schema-valid also means the elements and values match a given XSD or DTD, which this tool does not check.
What are the most common XML errors?
An unclosed tag, wrong closing order such as <a><b></a></b>, an unescaped & in text, and more than one root element.
Why is rejected?
It is an HTML entity, not one of the five XML entities, so replace it with the numeric reference  .