YAML to JSON Converter - Convert YAML to JSON Online (Free)

Convert YAML to JSON instantly, right in your browser

Paste any YAML config, API response, or data file above and get clean, valid JSON back in one click. No sign-up, no file uploads – your data never leaves your device.

# YAML input
server:
  host: api.example.com
  port: 8080
  tls: true
tags:
  - production
  - v2

{
  "server": {
    "host": "api.example.com",
    "port": 8080,
    "tls": true
  },
  "tags": [
    "production",
    "v2"
  ]
}

How to use this YAML to JSON converter

1. Paste your YAML into the input panel above.
2. The JSON output appears automatically on the right (or click Convert if prompted).
3. Review the result – check that nested structures and data types look right.
4. Hit Copy to grab the JSON, or download it as a .json file.

Worked example: Kubernetes config to JSON

Say you have this YAML snippet from a Kubernetes deployment manifest:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app
  labels:
    env: staging
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: my-app

The converter outputs this JSON:

{
  "apiVersion": "apps/v1",
  "kind": "Deployment",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "my-app",
    "labels": {
      "env": "staging"
    }
  },
  "spec": {
    "replicas": 3,
    "selector": {
      "matchLabels": {
        "app": "my-app"
      }
    }
  }
}

Notice that replicas stays a number (not a string) – the converter preserves data types correctly.

How to convert YAML to JSON in code

If you need this in a script or build pipeline, here are the shortest working approaches in two popular languages.

Python

Requires the PyYAML package (pip install pyyaml).

import yaml, json

with open('config.yaml') as f:
    data = yaml.safe_load(f)

print(json.dumps(data, indent=2))

JavaScript (Node.js)

Requires the js-yaml package (npm install js-yaml).

const yaml = require('js-yaml');
const fs   = require('fs');

const data = yaml.load(fs.readFileSync('config.yaml', 'utf8'));
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2));

Both snippets read a file, parse the YAML into a native object, then serialize it back out as formatted JSON.

How the conversion works

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) and JSON share the same underlying data model – objects (key-value maps), arrays, strings, numbers, booleans, and nulls. That's why converting between them is lossless for data, with one important exception: YAML comments are dropped, because JSON has no comment syntax at all.

The converter parses your YAML into an in-memory tree, then re-serializes it as JSON with double-quoted keys, curly braces for objects, and square brackets for arrays – following the JSON specification. The YAML side follows the YAML 1.2 spec. Everything runs in your browser with JavaScript – zero server calls, zero data storage.

When to use YAML to JSON conversion

When not to convert

• You need to keep comments. Human-readable comments in YAML (lines starting with #) are lost permanently when you convert to JSON.
• The target system reads YAML natively. Docker Compose, GitHub Actions, Ansible, and Kubernetes all accept YAML directly – no conversion needed.
• Your YAML uses anchors or aliases. These YAML-only features (like &anchor and *alias) are expanded and flattened during conversion; the shorthand is gone in the output.

Need to go the other direction? Try the JSON to YAML Converter to turn JSON objects back into clean, readable YAML.

Bottom line: paste your YAML above and get valid JSON in seconds – no account, no waiting, nothing stored.