Compare Two Texts and Find the Differences
Paste an original and a changed version to see exactly what was edited. Switch between line, word and character comparison, and between side-by-side and unified views.
How to compare two texts
- Paste the original text on the left and the changed version on the right, or load the sample.
- Choose whether to compare by lines, words or characters.
- Pick side-by-side or unified view and optionally ignore case or whitespace differences.
- Read the added and removed counts, review the highlighted changes and copy the diff if needed.
Choosing line, word or character comparison
Line comparison is best for code, configuration files and lists, where whole lines are added or removed. Word comparison suits prose and contracts, because it pinpoints the changed words inside a paragraph without flagging the whole line. Character comparison finds single-letter typos, IDs and numbers that differ by one digit. Added text is marked with a plus and underlined, removed text with a minus and struck through, so changes are clear without relying on colour. If the texts only differ in spacing, clean both with Remove Extra Spaces first.
Benefits
- Three comparison granularities in one tool.
- Accessible output: + and − markers, strikethrough and underline plus screen-reader labels, not just red and green.
- Ignore case and whitespace options cut noise from formatting changes.
Limitations
- Very large or completely different texts are stopped after 2 seconds to keep the page responsive; compare smaller sections in that case.
- Moved blocks are shown as a removal plus an addition, not as a move.
- Formatting such as bold or fonts is not compared — only plain text.
Privacy and security
Both texts are compared by JavaScript in your browser using the open-source diff library. Nothing is uploaded, so contracts and source code stay private.
Read our privacy policy for details about the site as a whole.
Frequently asked questions
Can I compare two Word or PDF documents?
Copy the text out of each document and paste it here. The comparison works on plain text, so formatting changes are not shown.
Why does a small edit mark the whole line as changed?
In line mode any difference makes the line count as removed and re-added. Switch to word or character mode to see the exact edit inside the line.
What does "ignore whitespace" do?
In line mode it ignores leading and trailing spaces on each line; in word mode it ignores differences in the amount of spacing between words.