How exactly are the keys ordered?

By comparing the characters themselves, not by dictionary rules. Digits sort before capital letters, which sort before lowercase letters, accented letters such as é come after z, and 10 lands before 2 because keys are compared as text.

Does sorting change what my JSON means?

Not for parsers, since the order of keys in an object carries no meaning in JSON. A program or config format that reads keys in order could behave differently, so check before replacing a file. Arrays are untouched.

Can I use this to compare two JSON files?

Yes. Sort both and run any text diff, or paste them into JSON Compare, which already ignores key order and lists each difference by path.

Can I sort in descending order or by value?

No. The page only offers ascending key order. To reverse it you would need to edit the output or sort in your own code.

JSON Sorter

Sort JSON keys alphabetically.

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About JSON Sorter

Two config files can hold identical settings and still produce a wall of changes in a diff, simply because the keys were written in a different order. Paste a JSON document and every object, however deeply nested, gets its keys in ascending order, with two spaces of indentation. Arrays keep their order, since reordering them would change the data, and values are not changed.

Features

Sorts the keys of every nested object, not just the top level
Array items keep their original order
Plain code-unit order, so 10 sorts before 2 and uppercase before lowercase
Repeated keys are kept rather than merged
Output indented with two spaces and updated live

Limitations

Ascending order only: there is no descending, case-insensitive or natural number sort.
Array items are never reordered, even when they are objects you might want sorted by a field.
The indentation is fixed at two spaces, and the original layout is not kept.
Downloading the result needs a free account; copying it does not.

How it works

Paste the JSON into the JSON Input panel.
Read the Sorted JSON panel, which updates as you type and lists the keys of every object in ascending order.
If the text is not valid JSON, an error message appears in the middle column instead.
Select Copy Output to copy the result, or Download to save it as output.txt.

Example input

{
  "zebra": 1,
  "apple": 2,
  "mango": { "banana": 1, "avocado": 2 }
}

Frequently asked questions

: By comparing the characters themselves, not by dictionary rules. Digits sort before capital letters, which sort before lowercase letters, accented letters such as é come after z, and 10 lands before 2 because keys are compared as text.
: Not for parsers, since the order of keys in an object carries no meaning in JSON. A program or config format that reads keys in order could behave differently, so check before replacing a file. Arrays are untouched.
: Yes. Sort both and run any text diff, or paste them into JSON Compare, which already ignores key order and lists each difference by path.
: No. The page only offers ascending key order. To reverse it you would need to edit the output or sort in your own code.