# CSS Formatter & Minifier - Beautify or Compress CSS Online

> Free online CSS beautifier and minifier: one declaration per line, correct @media, nesting and url() handling, optional property sorting and a byte count.

- URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/css-format
- Category: Developer Tools (https://qilingtools.com/en/dev)
- Tags: [Compression](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/compress), [Developer](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/dev), [Code Formatting](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/format), [Frontend](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/frontend)
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Price: Free, no sign-up
- Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded

CSS copied from browser devtools, a minified production bundle or an old project is often crammed onto one line or indented inconsistently. Paste it here for a tidy stylesheet: one declaration per line with a space after the colon, one selector per line, spaced >, + and ~ combinators, spaces after commas and a consistent !important; @media, @supports, @font-face, @keyframes and native CSS nesting (&:hover) are indented by depth. The tokenizer understands strings, comments and unquoted url(data:…) values, so semicolons and braces inside them are never split. Choose 2 / 4 spaces or tabs, strip comments, or sort properties alphabetically with vendor-prefixed versions first. Minify removes whitespace, comments and trailing semicolons, optionally keeps /*! license comments, and reports the size before and after.

## How to use

1. Paste your CSS
2. Choose Beautify or Minify and set indentation, sorting and comment options
3. Copy or download the result

## Features

- One declaration per line and one selector per line
- Nested @media, @supports and CSS nesting indented by depth
- Strings, comments and url() handled safely
- Alphabetical property sorting with vendor prefixes first
- Remove comments or keep /*! license comments
- Minify with bytes-saved report
- Runs locally; your code is never uploaded

## FAQ

### Will beautifying or minifying change how my page looks?

No. Only whitespace, line breaks, indentation and comments change; selectors, values and declaration order stay the same. The one exception to watch is property sorting: if a rule sets background-color before the background shorthand, sorting can change which one wins, so leave sorting off in that case.

### How much smaller does minified CSS get?

It depends on how much whitespace and commenting the source has. Hand-written, commented stylesheets typically shrink by 20–40%, while already minified files barely change. Serve the result with gzip or brotli compression for the biggest savings.

### Does it support SCSS or Less?

It targets standard CSS, including nesting, custom properties (--variables) and all at-rules. SCSS or Less code that shares CSS structure, such as nested rules and variable declarations, usually formats fine, but preprocessor-only syntax like @mixin arguments or // line comments may not be handled correctly.

### Is my code uploaded?

No. Everything runs in your browser without any network request, and your code is discarded when you close the page.

## Related tools

- [JSON Formatter](https://qilingtools.com/en/json): Free online JSON formatter: beautify or minify, validate with the exact line and column of any error, browse a collapsible tree, sort keys and escape strings.
- [Base64 Encode/Decode](https://qilingtools.com/en/base64): Free online Base64 encoder and decoder: UTF-8 safe, optional URL-safe variant, convert text to Base64 and back in real time. Processed locally, never uploaded.
- [URL Encode/Decode](https://qilingtools.com/en/url-encode): Free online URL encoder and decoder with encodeURIComponent and encodeURI modes. Escapes Chinese, spaces and special characters. Real-time and local, no upload.
- [JWT Decoder](https://qilingtools.com/en/jwt): Free online JWT decoder: decode the header and payload of a JSON Web Token, show expiry and issued-at times, all locally without uploading the token.
- [Timestamp Converter](https://qilingtools.com/en/timestamp): Free online Unix timestamp converter: convert timestamps and dates, auto-detect seconds or milliseconds, and show local, UTC, ISO 8601 and relative time.
- [Hash / Checksum](https://qilingtools.com/en/hash): Free online hash calculator: SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 of text or any file through the browser crypto API. Files never leave your device.
- [UUID Generator](https://qilingtools.com/en/uuid): Free online UUID generator: create RFC 4122 UUID v4 in bulk with a cryptographic RNG. Options for uppercase, no hyphens and braces, with one-click copy.
- [Base Converter](https://qilingtools.com/en/base-convert): Free online number base converter: convert between binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal and any base 2–36. Uses BigInt for huge integers, computed locally.