JSON to TXT Converter
Turn a JSON array into a plain .txt file with one record per line and the fields lined up in columns. It reads in any text editor and imports into tools that never learned to parse braces.
Data Converter
or drop CSV, TSV, TXT … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Character that separates columns in CSV and text files, for both reading and writing. Auto detects it from the input and writes commas.
UTF-8 works for every language. Choose UTF-8 with BOM if Excel on Windows shows garbled accents or Asian characters when opening the CSV.
Excel, ODS and Numbers input: convert the first sheet only, or every sheet (one CSV per sheet in a ZIP, or one JSON key per sheet).
Name of the sheet tab in the new spreadsheet, up to 31 characters.
Array of objects uses column names as keys for every row; array of arrays is more compact and keeps the header as the first array.
Name of the outer element that wraps all rows; each row becomes a <row> inside it.
Used in CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements. Letters, digits and underscores only.
Quoting and column types differ slightly between databases; pick the one you will import into.
Rewrite date cells in one format. ISO (2026-10-18) is safest for databases and code; keep leaves them as they appear in the source.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the JSON
Add .json, .jsonl or .ndjson files, up to 20 per batch and 95 MB each. An array of records or one object per line works best.
- 2
Pick the separator
Tab is preselected. Under Advanced settings, change Delimiter to Pipe, Semicolon, Comma or Space if the receiving system asks for one, and choose a Text encoding for older software.
- 3
Convert and open
Press Convert to Plain text and download the .txt file. Double-click it to read it, or import it wherever a delimited text file is accepted.
How do I convert a JSON file to a TXT file?
Upload the .json file and press Convert to Plain text. Each JSON record becomes one line, each key a column separated by tabs, with the key names on the first line.
Why convert JSON to plain text
JSON was designed for programs. RFC 8259 gives it no comments, no row concept and no notion of columns, so a file of 5,000 orders opens in a text editor as one long wall of braces. That is fine for an API and unhelpful for the support agent who needs to search an export, the auditor who wants a printout, or the overnight batch job on an old system that reads one record per line.
Plain text with a delimiter is the oldest common ground in computing. It needs no library to read, greps cleanly, diffs line by line in version control and imports into nearly every database and spreadsheet. If the receiver specifically wants commas and a .csv extension, JSON to CSV writes the same rows in that form.
Choosing a delimiter for the TXT file
| Delimiter | Looks like | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|
| Tab (default) | ord-1001→Lisbon→49.90 | Data contains commas, or the file goes to cut, awk or Excel |
| Pipe | | ord-1001|Lisbon|49.90 | A bank, payroll or EDI-style import names pipe-delimited text |
| Semicolon ; | ord-1001;Lisbon;49.90 | Excel in Germany, France or Brazil will open the file |
| Comma , | ord-1001,Lisbon,49.90 | The importer wants CSV-style content in a .txt file |
| Space | ord-1001 Lisbon 49.90 | Values never contain spaces, such as IDs and numbers only |
JSON to text file example
[
{"order": "ord-1001", "city": "Lisbon", "total": 49.9, "paid": true},
{"order": "ord-1002", "city": "Osaka", "total": 120, "paid": false}
]
order city total paid
ord-1001 Lisbon 49.9 true
ord-1002 Osaka 120 falseWhat survives the trip from JSON to TXT
Kept
- Every value, as text
- Key names in the header line
- Record order
- Unicode characters in UTF-8
Changed
- Nested objects become dotted columns
- true, false and numbers lose their type
- Arrays inside a record become one field
Gone
- Braces, brackets and quotes around keys
- Indentation and pretty printing
- Any guarantee a parser can rebuild the exact original
JSON and TXT compared
JSON
JavaScript Object Notation
JSON is a lightweight text format for structured data, popularised by Douglas Crockford in the early 2000s and standardised as RFC 8259 and ECMA-404. It represents objects, arrays, strings, numbers, booleans and null with simple, readable syntax. It is the default format for web APIs, configuration files and data exchange between apps in almost every programming language. It has no comments, dates or schemas built in, and large nested files are hard to read without a viewer.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2001 · Douglas Crockford
TXT
Plain text
A TXT file contains only plain characters with no formatting, fonts, images or layout. Modern text files are usually encoded in UTF-8, which covers every language, though older files may use other encodings and show garbled characters. Plain text is tiny, never becomes obsolete and opens on every device, from phones to servers. It cannot hold bold text, tables or pictures, so structure must be expressed with spacing or simple markup.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- –
JSON is flattened to TXT when the next reader is a person with Notepad, a mainframe or legacy batch job that loads fixed text lines, or a shell pipeline built on grep, cut and sort.
JSON to TXT converter FAQ
Why is tab the default separator for JSON to TXT?
Tabs almost never occur inside names, addresses or prices, so values rarely need quoting. Classic Unix tools such as cut also split on tabs by default, and Excel's Text Import Wizard recognizes them without extra steps.
Can I just rename the .json file to .txt?
You can, and the file still holds JSON: braces, quotes and keys repeated on every record. That passes an upload form that only checks the extension, but a person or an importer expecting one record per line still cannot use it. Converting changes the content, not just the name.
What happens to nested objects and arrays?
A text line is flat, so nested objects are spread into extra columns named with a dot path, such as address.city. Lists inside a record stay in a single field as JSON text.
Which encoding should the text file use?
UTF-8 for anything current; Windows Notepad has saved UTF-8 by default since Windows 10 version 1903. Pick Windows-1252 or Shift_JIS only when an older program shows garbled letters with UTF-8.
Will my JSON Lines log file convert?
Yes. A .jsonl or .ndjson file is read one object per line, which is how most log shippers and BigQuery exports write data, and each object becomes one line of text.
Can the text be turned back into JSON?
Yes, as long as the header line is kept: TXT to JSON reads the column names and rebuilds an array of objects. Dotted names come back as flat keys rather than nested objects.
