JSON-LD

Semantic & Data Protocol

A W3C-standardized JSON-based format for serializing Linked Data, allowing existing JSON to be interpreted as RDF with minimal changes. JSON-LD provides a meaning layer on top of plain JSON by using a @context to map JSON keys to IRIs (Internationalized Resource Identifiers), enabling machine-readable interoperability across systems without requiring shared implementation. Widely used as the default serialization for W3C Verifiable Credentials, ActivityPub, schema.org embeddings, and other decentralized-data ecosystems .

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License N/A — specification document; many open-source implementations exist (jsonld.js, jsonld.py, ruby-rdf, jsonld-java, titanium-json-ld, and others) under various permissive licenses
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released (JSON-LD 1.1 is a stable W3C Recommendation since July 16, 2020; widely deployed across the W3C Verifiable Credentials, Activity Streams 2.0, schema.org, and Linked Data ecosystems)
Owner W3C JSON-LD Working Group (specification editors include Gregg Kellogg, Pierre-Antoine Champin, and Dave Longley); the underlying ideas originated in the JSON-LD Community Group
Country International (W3C is a global standards body; editors and contributors distributed across multiple countries and organizations)
Start Year 2010
Stack N/A — specification, not implementation
Funding W3C (open standards body funded by member organizations and grants)
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Use Case Domains

Co-Creation & Knowledge

Semantic & Data Protocol Attributes

Origins Semantic Web / Linked Data (designed to bridge plain-JSON developer ergonomics with RDF / Linked Data interoperability; explicit goal: enable JSON developers to participate in the Semantic Web without leaving JSON)
Database N/A — JSON-LD is a data format, not a database
Query Language JSON-LD documents can be queried with SPARQL after being interpreted as RDF; framing (a JSON-LD 1.1 capability) provides a query-by-example mechanism for shaping output documents
Data Formats JSON-LD (the format itself); can be losslessly converted to and from N-Quads, Turtle, RDF/XML, and other RDF serializations; JSON-LD 1.1 specifies expansion, compaction, flattening, and framing transformations
Collaborative Live Editing N/A
Rich Text Editing N/A
Mobile Support N/A — data format; works in any environment that supports JSON
Web Support Yes — JSON-LD is widely consumed in browsers; schema.org JSON-LD embedded in HTML pages is the most common form of structured data on the web
Native Apps N/A — data format works in any runtime; processor libraries exist for all major languages
Terms Free open standard (no licensing fees; W3C standards are royalty-free under the W3C Patent Policy)
Funds N/A — open standard, no funding round
Based On JSON (RFC 8259 — the underlying serialization syntax); RDF (the data model JSON-LD serializes); IRIs (RFC 3987 — used as global identifiers in @context mappings); W3C Patent Policy (royalty-free licensing framework)
Semantic Web Compatibility Full RDF compliance (JSON-LD is one of the official RDF 1.1 serialization formats; documents can be interpreted as RDF graphs and queried with SPARQL; the JSON-LD 1.1 API specifies the algorithms for this transformation)
Protocol Maturity / Standardization W3C Standard (JSON-LD 1.1 published as W3C Recommendation on 16 July 2020; the family includes JSON-LD 1.1 Syntax, JSON-LD 1.1 Processing Algorithms and API, and JSON-LD 1.1 Framing — all Recommendations)
Vocabulary / Ontology Type General-purpose (JSON-LD is domain-agnostic; the same format is used for credentials, social media, knowledge graphs, structured data on the web, IoT, and many other domains)
Usage Pattern Embedded in other protocols (JSON-LD is rarely a standalone protocol; it serves as the data format beneath higher-level specifications including W3C Verifiable Credentials, ActivityPub, schema.org, Solid, and many others; @context mechanism allows it to carry domain-specific vocabularies)