JSON to Go Struct: The Complete Conversion Guide for 2026

Converting JSON to Go structs is a daily task for Go backend developers. Here's everything you need to know. Basic Struct Generation For this JSON: { "id" : 1 , "name" : "Alice" , "email" : "alice@example.com" , "active" : true } Generated Go struct: type User struct { ID int `json:"id"` Name string `json:"name"` Email string `json:"email"` Active bool `json:"active"` } JSON Tags Explained type Product struct { // "json" tag maps field to JSON key ProductID int `json:"product_id"` // omitempty: skip field if zero value Description string `json:"description,omitempty"` // "-": always skip this field Internal string `json:"-"` // string: marshal number as JSON string Price float64 `json:"price,string"` } Nested Structs and Arrays type Order struct { OrderID string `json:"order_id"` Customer Customer `json:"customer"` // nested struct Items [] Item `json:"items"` // array of structs Tags [] string `json:"tags"` // array of primitives Meta map [ string ] interface {} `json:"meta"` // dynam