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I am looking for a JSON viewer for Windows that can:

Ideally:

  • tabs
  • gratis
  • can edit JSON data
  • displays the filename somewhere, unlike JSON Viewer
  • provide some statistics on the JSON content

Example of large JSON file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a6ytj5wa1zlm1c/tracker004_track_2015-08-28_22-22-01-238000.json?dl=0

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  • @ThomasWeller Example: dropbox.com/s/2a6ytj5wa1zlm1c/…
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Jul 13, 2016 at 19:10
  • @ThompasWeller definitely, that's pretty much my configuration :) A few minutes is ok. I think Pavel was also thinking of creating such a tool (@pavel sorry for not having replied to your email yet, this week is a bit hectic)
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Jul 14, 2016 at 3:59

9 Answers 9

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+50

I have written Huge JSON viewer based on JSON.NET, one of the fastest JSON frameworks. It matches the requirements as follows:

  • open decently large files: it can open the 1.44 GB example file without crashing in ~ 2:45 minutes on my machine (Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, SSD). To do that, the OS must be 64 bit. A progress bar is shown
  • has a decently responsive UI: I use a commercial tree view from DevExpress which I hope is optimized very well.
  • can collapse/expand a given level: it is a full tree view and can expand/collapse any nodes. It has a feature to expand to a given level
  • works off-line: it's a Windows desktop application. Needs .NET
  • provide some statistics on the JSON content: some. Can definitely be improved.
  • tabs: yes.
  • gratis: yes. MIT license, but closed source.
  • displays the filename somewhere: yes, in the tab

The only thing it can definitely not (but was optional):

  • "can edit JSON data"

Additional features:

  • search capability
  • performance warning when memory swapping to disk is expected

System requirements:

  • Windows 7 SP1 or higher, x64 bit recommended
  • Physical RAM roughly 7 times the file size to be opened
  • .NET 4.5

Watch out the list of known issues until it's out of beta phase.

Screenshots: Huge JSON Viewer

Performance warning

Download (including portable version): https://github.com/WelliSolutions/HugeJsonViewer#releases

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  • @ThomasWeller be aware that Avast is reporting this as a virus.
    – red-o-alf
    May 10, 2017 at 16:02
  • I downloaded the program straight from your website (your link). What happened was that after installing and trying to run the .exe, Avast Cybercapture (blog.avast.com/…) kicked in and it said the file was dangerous and deleted it automatically. Maybe your version of Avast engine was not up-to-date or this feature was turned off?
    – red-o-alf
    May 10, 2017 at 20:46
  • 1
    @jj_: ok, thanks. The only difference I can think of is that I needed to copy the file from my download folder to the virtual machine. I'll check that and make sure I have Cybercapture activated. Thanks for providing all that information.
    – Thomas Weller
    May 11, 2017 at 11:05
  • @jj_: Some antivirus software consider all new apps as virus by default, forcing developers to add their apps to a whitelist. That might be the problem here.
    – Nicolas Raoul ♦
    Aug 20, 2018 at 3:31
  • I just want to say thanks for creating this. It does exactly what I was looking for and I'm thrilled to see OSS like this still being written!
    – Scorpion
    Feb 7, 2019 at 8:44
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I'm using JSONedit, typically with 1-2MB of text. Largest data sets I've tested were around 50MB and it's annoyingly slow with loading it and peak RAM usage reaches few hundreds MB - there is definitely room for improvement, but it's at least order of magnitude better than browser-based editors I've tested. It seems to meet most of your requirements except tabs and I don't know what you mean by statistics - JSONedit can count nodes by type or count total length of strings for memory usage estimation for DOM-style parsers, maybe this is sufficient).

enter image description here

It can show node statistics:

enter image description here

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  • Thanks, pretty good but too slow when the JSON file is over 10 MB :/
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 2, 2015 at 16:58
  • This worked well for me with a 12MB file that Visual Studio choked on.
    – Les
    Jul 11, 2016 at 0:40
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Disclaimer: I'm the author of JSONBuddy.

JSONBuddy can do all of this for you and even more:

  1. Can open and edit very large JSON and text data (please use the Plus edition if you need to edit multi-GB text files).
  2. Grid view in addition to the standard text editor.
  3. Built-in JSON validator and syntax-checking.
  4. Entry-helpers based on schema context.
  5. A JSON schema analyzer.

JSONBuddy text editing window

Those are the points related to this posting. Besides that, JSONBuddy also offers additional functionality like CSV and XML to JSON conversions, batch validation or JSON schema documentation.

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5

In case I want to open truly very large files (logs from application for example), then my preferred solution is to load this file into the local mongo database (it is for free) and then use some Mongo GUI (3T Studio/Mongo DBCompass/… for free as well). The benefits against other solutions (like HugeJsonViewer) is that you are definitely not restricted by file size (just size of your disk) and you have also structured query language for to asking for data. Fact is that a large JSON query is a just a database file.

  1. gratis
  2. unlimited file size : just size of disk is limit
  3. Excellent GUI : not just one 3T Studio/Mongo DBCompass/... Support for those who want to pay
  4. structured query language : that's what I'm really appreciated
  5. tabs: yes.
  6. Licence possible : you can buy a licence in case you want more a more
  7. ...

Mongo Compass - import file

3T studio - show/query data

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  • Maximum document size in MongoDB is just puny 16MB, so that does not work for big files ;(
    – Andrew Savinykh
    Sep 8 at 9:29
4

You can use JSToolNpp:

  • open source (GPL 2.0)
  • javascript plugin for Notepad++ (formerly JSMinNpp)
  • can open file up to 100 MB (I haven't tried larger yet)
  • has a responsive UI
  • can collapse/expand a given level (treeview / outline)

enter image description here

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  • 2
    Notepad++ itself seems to start having issues when file size grows above 100 MB.
    – 3ventic
    Dec 8, 2015 at 6:24
  • @3ventic yes :-( I'm still looking for better solutions.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Dec 8, 2015 at 14:30
  • 2
    This is the only reason I don't like NPP+, they even acknowledge the problem and it doesn't sound like they have any good solution. docs.notepad-plus-plus.org/index.php/Large_Text_Files
    – Caimen
    Jul 14, 2016 at 20:06
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I am not using Windows but this method is cross platform and meets your basic criteria, using Node.js and Google Chrome’s DevTools.

  • I use this to view JSON files that are 100’s of MBs large.
  • UI is quick and responsive.
  • Uses a treeview
  • Works offline
  • Free

How to use it:

  1. Run Node.js with --inspect flag:

    > node --inspect
Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:9229/4c1a18f5-f845-47ea-bd18-92c993d61891
For help, see: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/inspector

  2. Use Google Chrome’s DevTools to connect to the Node.js process above (using chrome://inspect/).

    See: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/inspector

  3. Type in require('./path/to/json.json') to view it.

    Screenshot

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2

"Dadroit is a brilliant tool that treats JSON as a data format, not a plain text. It provides you a quick outline view with the help of tree representation of JSON data from root to last nodes. So you can browse and query JSON like an enterprise DBMS."

FREE FOR NO COMMERCIAL USE

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

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  • 2
    Super expensive for a json editor having no full-featured trial. ($200 - $400 per year as of Feb 2023)
    – Jason
    Feb 6 at 23:10
  • It is free for no commercial use!
    – Ali.Ghodrat
    Feb 15 at 19:06
  • 1
    Only free for files 50MB or less i.stack.imgur.com/FZNmF.jpg
    – Jamesfo
    Apr 20 at 22:45
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I think you can use MiTec JSON Viewer. Here’re the details regarding this tool.

Description:
MiTeC JSON Viewer is free JSON viewer software, which you can use to load, view and edits multiple JSON files at a time. It has an attractive and well-organized interface that comes fully loaded with various options to view a file both in Tree and Text mode. You can switch between them with Tree and Source options at the bottom of the interface.

Features:

  • Upload data
    • From file: yes
    • Copy Paste: no
    • From URL: no
  • Data Structure Show Up
    • Tree Structure: yes
    • Text Mode: yes
  • Minimization / Minify: yes
  • Search Functionality: yes
  • Formatting and Validating JSON data: yes
  • Show Array Index: yes
  • Show JS type: no
  • Price: Free
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1

I've created a web app (Cluria) for viewing very large JSON files that loads very fast. To support this, it only renders a preview of the file, not the entire data. This is useful if you just want to view the file (e.g. to understand its general structure) and data types without necessarily seeing the full data.

If this is your use case, this can be very useful since it can preview giant JSON files in just a few seconds.

Example using the dev JSON file from SQuAD: https://rajpurkar.github.io/SQuAD-explorer/dataset/dev-v2.0.json

enter image description here

It's entirely free to use and any feedback would be appreciated as its still in beta mode :)

Link: http://www.cluria.com

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