What does the validator check for RSS 2.0?

It confirms a single element containing the required , and . Each must contain at least a or a . It also warns when items lack a , which aggregators use to de-duplicate entries.

What does it check for Atom 1.0?

Per RFC 4287 it requires the element to contain , and , and each to contain its own , and . It also warns when there is no feed-level unless every entry supplies one.

Is my feed sent anywhere?

No. The feed is parsed locally using the browser's built-in XML parser (DOMParser). Nothing is uploaded, so you can validate private or pre-publication feeds safely.

Why does it say my XML is not well-formed?

The browser's parser found a syntax error such as an unclosed tag, an unescaped ampersand, or a stray angle bracket. The first line of the parser error is shown. Fix the markup so the document parses, then the element-level checks can run.

Does a clean result mean every aggregator will accept the feed?

It means the required elements defined by the specification are present. Individual readers may impose extra requirements (such as enclosure formats for podcasts), and warnings here flag recommended-but-optional elements you may still want to add.

What is the RSS / Atom Feed Validator?

Free in-browser RSS and Atom feed validator. Paste an RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0 feed and check the required elements per spec — channel title/link/description for RSS, feed id/title/updated for Atom — plus per-item checks. Errors reported by element. Nothing uploaded. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

RSS / Atom Feed Validator

Name: RSS / Atom Feed Validator
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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The RSS / Atom Feed Validator checks a pasted feed against the requirements of the RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 (RFC 4287) specifications. It tells you which required elements are missing and which recommended ones are worth adding — all parsed locally in your browser.

How it works

The tool parses your XML with the browser’s DOMParser. If the document is not well-formed, it surfaces the parser’s first error and stops. Otherwise it inspects the root element:

<rss> — checks for a <channel> containing <title>, <link> and <description>. Every <item> must have a <title> or a <description>, and a missing <guid> raises a warning.
<feed> — checks (per Atom) for <id>, <title> and <updated> on the feed and on each <entry>, and warns when no <author> is present at feed level.

Issues are grouped by element so you can see exactly where a feed deviates from the spec. Errors indicate a genuine violation; warnings indicate a recommendation.

Common feed problems and how to fix them

Unescaped ampersands are the most frequent cause of “not well-formed” errors. In XML you must write & not & inside element text. A URL like example.com/search?a=1&b=2 in a <link> element must become example.com/search?a=1&b=2.

Missing <guid> on items is the most common warning. Aggregators like Feedly and NetNewsWire use <guid> to de-duplicate entries across refreshes — without it they may show the same item multiple times if its position in the feed shifts. The simplest guid is the permanent URL of the article.

Atom <updated> format: the value must be a valid RFC 3339 datetime, such as 2026-06-01T12:00:00Z. Plain dates like 2026-06-01 fail spec. Many CMS generators output ISO 8601 dates without the time component — this validator flags that.

No items or entries found: this usually means the XML parsed correctly but the channel or feed wrapper is misconfigured — for example an <rss> tag with version="1.0" instead of version="2.0" uses a different namespace and is not RSS 2.0.

Quick RSS 2.0 skeleton

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>My Feed</title>
    <link>https://example.com</link>
    <description>Latest posts from My Site</description>
    <item>
      <title>First Post</title>
      <link>https://example.com/first-post</link>
      <guid>https://example.com/first-post</guid>
      <description>Summary of the first post.</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Paste this skeleton, confirm it validates green, then replace the placeholder values with your real content. Validating a minimal working feed first makes it easier to isolate which addition breaks the document.