Deterministic output — two equivalent JSON documents produce the same bytes, which makes diffs, hashes, git history, and cache keys much more useful.

No. Arrays are order-sensitive in JSON (they represent sequences). The tool sorts object keys recursively but leaves array element order untouched.

Is it case-sensitive?

Yes — capital letters sort before lowercase (ASCII order). Toggle case-insensitive mode if you want 'Apple' and 'apple' to sort together.

Will sorting change my API responses?

Yes — clients that rely on key order will break. Most JSON consumers are order-independent, but double-check before sorting production data.

A worked example, rendered from real sample data. Sign in to run the tool on your own input.

Input

{"zebra":1,"apple":2,"mango":{"cherry":3,"banana":4},"lemon":[1,2,3]}

Output

{
  "apple": 2,
  "lemon": [
    1,
    2,
    3
  ],
  "mango": {
    "banana": 4,
    "cherry": 3
  },
  "zebra": 1
}

Recursively sort all keys in a JSON document alphabetically. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the JSON collection.

JSON keys are unordered by specification (RFC 8259), meaning {"b":1,"a":2} and {"a":2,"b":1} are semantically identical.
Python's json.dumps supports sort_keys=True natively, but JavaScript's JSON.stringify does not, requiring manual implementation.
Canonical JSON formats like JCS (RFC 8785) mandate sorted keys to enable deterministic hashing and digital signatures.

Why sort JSON keys?: Deterministic output — two equivalent JSON documents produce the same bytes, which makes diffs, hashes, git history, and cache keys much more useful.
Does it sort arrays?: No. Arrays are order-sensitive in JSON (they represent sequences). The tool sorts object keys recursively but leaves array element order untouched.
Is it case-sensitive?: Yes — capital letters sort before lowercase (ASCII order). Toggle case-insensitive mode if you want 'Apple' and 'apple' to sort together.
Will sorting change my API responses?: Yes — clients that rely on key order will break. Most JSON consumers are order-independent, but double-check before sorting production data.

A worked example, rendered from real sample data. Sign in to run the tool on your own input.

Input

{"zebra":1,"apple":2,"mango":{"cherry":3,"banana":4},"lemon":[1,2,3]}

Output

{
  "apple": 2,
  "lemon": [
    1,
    2,
    3
  ],
  "mango": {
    "banana": 4,
    "cherry": 3
  },
  "zebra": 1
}

Recursively sort all keys in a JSON document alphabetically. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the JSON collection.

JSON keys are unordered by specification (RFC 8259), meaning {"b":1,"a":2} and {"a":2,"b":1} are semantically identical.
Python's json.dumps supports sort_keys=True natively, but JavaScript's JSON.stringify does not, requiring manual implementation.
Canonical JSON formats like JCS (RFC 8785) mandate sorted keys to enable deterministic hashing and digital signatures.

Why sort JSON keys?: Deterministic output — two equivalent JSON documents produce the same bytes, which makes diffs, hashes, git history, and cache keys much more useful.
Does it sort arrays?: No. Arrays are order-sensitive in JSON (they represent sequences). The tool sorts object keys recursively but leaves array element order untouched.
Is it case-sensitive?: Yes — capital letters sort before lowercase (ASCII order). Toggle case-insensitive mode if you want 'Apple' and 'apple' to sort together.
Will sorting change my API responses?: Yes — clients that rely on key order will break. Most JSON consumers are order-independent, but double-check before sorting production data.