JSON Expand Nested Strings

Some APIs return JSON where certain values are themselves JSON strings — double-encoded. You get something like {"user": "{\"name\": \"Ada\"}"} instead of a proper nested object. This tool recursively walks your JSON and expands every stringified JSON value into a real object, no matter how deep it's buried.

What it does

▸Recursively detects and parses stringified JSON values at any nesting depth
▸Handles arrays of stringified objects, nested objects, and mixed content
▸Preserves non-JSON strings untouched
▸Outputs clean, properly structured JSON with correct nesting

Use cases

▸Cleaning up responses from APIs that double-encode certain fields
▸Debugging webhook payloads where nested data arrives as escaped strings
▸Parsing log entries that embed JSON as string values
▸Normalizing data from legacy systems that serialize nested objects as strings

How it works

Paste your JSON with stringified nested values

The tool walks every string value and attempts to parse it as JSON

Successfully parsed values are replaced with their expanded object form

The output is clean, properly nested JSON you can use directly

Frequently asked questions

1Will it modify strings that aren't JSON?

No. It only expands strings that successfully parse as valid JSON. Regular string values like "hello world" or "2024-01-15" are left as-is.

2How deep does it go?

There's no depth limit. It recursively processes every value in the structure, so stringified JSON inside stringified JSON inside stringified JSON all gets expanded.