How to open a JSON file without coding
A Telegram export, a Google data archive, an app’s settings — more and more data arrives as a `.json` file. You do not need to be a programmer: you can read it in a minute.
What JSON is
JSON is a text format for data. It is made of “key: value” pairs, for example {"name": "Anna", "city": "Boston", "tags": ["work", "family"]}. Curly braces hold an object with fields, square brackets hold a list. Values are strings in quotes, numbers, true/false and null (empty).
1. Notepad or a browser
JSON is plain text, so even Notepad opens it. But programs often save it as a single line with no line breaks, and a big file becomes impossible to follow. Firefox shows JSON better: drag the file into its window and it opens as a tree. Other browsers usually show plain text.
2. Online formatters
A search for “JSON viewer” finds dozens of sites to paste text into. Many of them send it to their server. And exports from messengers and services contain chats, contacts and activity history. Before pasting such data, check the site.
3. A tree in OsonKit
Drop the file on OsonKit. It opens as a tree: objects and lists collapse and expand, and a collapsed node shows how many items it holds. You can search keys and values, switch to formatted text and copy it. The file is read in your browser and sent nowhere.
- Files up to 10 MB. Full exports from Telegram or Google can be bigger — those will not open.
- The tree is built for files up to 50,000 values; larger ones open in text mode so the page stays fast.
- If the file has an error, it opens as text and is marked as invalid JSON.
How to read the tree
Start at the top and collapse whatever you do not need. Lists with many items are usually the data itself: messages, records, points. Expand one item to see which fields it has — the rest are built the same way. Looking for a particular value? Just use search.