About JSON ↔ JSON5

Convert between strict JSON and relaxed JSON5 format. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the JSON collection.

Use Cases

• Developers converting commented config files to strict JSON
• Teams migrating between JSON and JSON5 for better readability
• Build tool authors supporting relaxed JSON input formats
• Code reviewers verifying JSON5 configs produce valid JSON output

Tips

• Use JSON5 for config files that need inline comments
• Convert JSON5 to strict JSON before sending to APIs
• Trailing commas in JSON5 prevent common copy-paste errors

Fun Facts

• JSON5 was created by Aseem Kishore in 2012 to address the most common complaints about JSON, especially the lack of comments and trailing commas.
• Douglas Crockford intentionally excluded comments from JSON because he saw them being used for parsing directives, which he considered an abuse of the format.
• JSON5 is a strict subset of ECMAScript 5.1 — every valid JSON5 document is also valid JavaScript, which is not true for standard JSON due to Unicode edge cases.

FAQ

What is JSON5?

An extension of JSON that allows comments, trailing commas, single-quoted strings, and unquoted identifier keys — effectively 'JavaScript object literals as a format'. Popular in config files (Tauri, Babel, ESLint).

Can I convert back and forth?

Yes — JSON5 → JSON strips comments and normalizes quotes; JSON → JSON5 is a no-op structurally but lets you hand-edit the result with comments.

Are JSON5 files valid JSON?

No. JSON5 is a superset syntactically but most JSON parsers reject it. Convert to strict JSON before storing in a system that expects RFC-8259.

What happens to JSON5 comments during conversion?

They're stripped. Keep a hand-maintained JSON5 source if comments matter and commit the converted JSON as a build artifact.