JSON Compare

About this tool

A text diff on JSON is misleading. Reordering keys, changing indentation or reformatting a file produces hundreds of changed lines while the data stays identical. What you usually want to know is which paths gained a value, lost one, or changed.

This tool parses both sides and walks them together, reporting differences as paths. Key order is ignored by default because JSON objects are unordered. Array order is significant by default, since element position usually carries meaning — but you can turn that off when comparing sets.

How to use this tool

1. Paste the original document on the left and the modified document on the right.
2. Choose whether array element order should be treated as significant.
3. Press Compare to get a summary count plus the full list of differences.
4. Read each entry as a path with its old and new value.

Key features

• ✓Structural comparison by path rather than by text line
• ✓Separate counts for added, removed and changed values
• ✓Object key order ignored, so reformatting never shows as a difference
• ✓Optional order-insensitive array comparison
• ✓Type changes reported explicitly, for example number to string
• ✓Identical documents confirmed with an explicit "no differences" result

Example

left:  {"name":"api","port":80}
right: {"name":"api","port":443,"tls":true}

~ changed  $.port   80 → 443
+ added    $.tls   true

1 changed, 1 added, 0 removed

Good to know

• Order-insensitive array comparison matches elements by value. Arrays of large objects with small edits may report a removal plus an addition rather than a single change.
• Both documents must be valid JSON; parse errors are reported per side before comparison begins.
• The diff is a list of paths, not a rendered side-by-side patch.

Frequently asked questions