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Free EDI Inspector
Parse, validate, and understand EDI 850, 810, 856, and 997 transactions instantly.
Your data never leaves your browser
All parsing and validation runs 100% client-side. Nothing is sent to our servers.
Upload EDI File
.txt, .edi, .x12 files up to 2MB
OR
Paste EDI Content
Privacy: Parsing and validation run entirely in your browser. Your EDI documents are never sent to our servers.
Need a sample? Try loading an example EDI document from the sample library below to see how the visualizer works.
Or try a sample
About This EDI Inspector
This free EDI inspector helps you understand X12 EDI transactions including 850 Purchase Orders, 810 Invoices, 856 Ship Notices (ASN), and 997 Functional Acknowledgments. Whether you're working with Walmart, Target, Amazon, or other trading partners, this tool makes it easy to parse and validate your EDI documents.
All parsing happens client-side in your browser, so your data never leaves your computer. Features include retailer-specific compliance validation, side-by-side document comparison, and export to JSON, CSV, or plain English.
Viewer, Reader, Formatter, and Checker in One
Most people arrive here wanting one of four things, and it is the same tool for all of them. As an EDI viewer and reader it turns a wall of raw X12 into annotated segments you can actually read. As a formatter it breaks a single-line interchange onto one segment per row with the delimiters resolved. As a checker it tests an 850, 810, 856, or 997 for structural validity and tells you where the envelope breaks. And in Compare mode it works as an ANSI X12 comparison tool for two files side by side. Nothing is uploaded in any of those modes.
What SNIP Levels Does This Validator Check?
SNIP levels come from the WEDI Strategic National Implementation Process. They were written for healthcare EDI but the seven types of testing are the standard way to describe how deep any X12 validator goes. This tool runs entirely in your browser, which sets a hard limit on what it can check.
| Level | What it tests | Checked here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | EDI syntax integrity: envelope structure, ISA/IEA, GS/GE and ST/SE pairing, segment and delimiter parsing | Yes |
| 2 | Implementation guide syntax: required segments present for the transaction set, such as BEG on an 850 or BIG on an 810 | Yes |
| 3 | Balancing: totals reconcile, for example CTT line count matching the actual number of PO1 segments | Partial |
| 4 | Situational rules: if element A is present then element B is required | Partial |
| 5 | External code sets: unit of measure, currency, and country codes validated against published lists | No |
| 6 | Product and service code sets specific to a line of business | No |
| 7 | Trading partner specific rules beyond the standard | Partial, for Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Costco |
Levels 5 and 6 need maintained external code tables, and full level 7 needs your partner's implementation guide. No generic browser tool can do those honestly. If a free validator claims all seven levels without asking which trading partner you are sending to, treat the claim carefully.
Validate an EDI 850 in v3050, 4010, or 5010
The parser reads the version from GS08 and validates the envelope and structure the same way across versions, so a 3050, 4010, or 5010 file all load. Retail EDI is still overwhelmingly 004010, healthcare is 005010, and 003050 turns up in older automotive and government relationships. What changes between versions is which segments and elements the standard permits, so a file that is structurally valid in one version can still be rejected by a partner expecting another. If you are chasing a rejection, check GS08 first: a version mismatch between what you send and what your partner mapped is one of the most common causes of a file that looks perfect and still fails.
Compare Two EDI Files
Switch to Compare mode to load two documents side by side and see a segment-level diff. It is the fastest way to answer why one order posted and a near-identical one did not, to check what actually changed between an original and a resend, or to line a partner's sample file up against your own output during onboarding. The comparison runs in the browser like everything else here, so neither file is uploaded.
Is This Open Source?
The parser is not open source, but it does run entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored on a server, and the page works with the network disconnected once loaded. You can confirm that in your browser's network tab. That matters because EDI files carry customer names, addresses, pricing, and volumes, and pasting them into a hosted validator sends all of it to someone else's server.
If you are looking for a library to embed rather than a tool to paste into, there are open source X12 parsers for most languages, including PHP, Python, and Node. They handle parsing well and generally leave partner-specific validation to you.
For programmatic access to parsing and extraction, see the extraction API, or read the EDI transaction guides for what each segment and code means.