Compare text guide
How to compare text and find every difference
In short
Paste the original on one side and the revised version on the other. The differences appear straight away, with removed text in one colour and added text in another. Compare by word, line, sentence or character, ignore case, spacing or punctuation if they don't matter, and export the result as a PDF, Word, CSV or plain +/− patch file. It all runs in your browser, and no comparison is saved or shared.
- Compare by
- Word, line, sentence, character
- Views
- Unified, side by side, changes only
- Export
- PDF, DOCX, CSV, JSON, .diff
- Saved or shared
- Never. Runs in your browser
How to compare two texts for differences
Paste the original text into the left box and the new version into the right. You can also import a text, Markdown, CSV, JSON, HTML or XML file under 5 MB.
Choose how finely to compare. Words suits essays and articles, Lines suits lists and code, Sentences suits big rewrites, and Characters catches single-letter typos.
Pick a view: Unified shows both versions in one flow, Side by side lines them up with line numbers, and Changes only hides everything that stayed the same. Use the arrows to jump from one change to the next.
Open the Rules tab to ignore letter case, whitespace, punctuation, accents or blank lines. Then copy or export the result.
Word, line, sentence or character comparison
| Level | Best for | Example of what it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Essays, articles, contracts | “quick” replaced by “fast” |
| Lines | Lists, CSV rows, code, poems | Line 14 removed, line 15 added |
| Sentences | Heavily edited paragraphs | Whole sentence rewritten |
| Characters | Typos, IDs, product codes | colour changed to color |
Sentence mode is useful when a paragraph has been heavily rewritten: it shows which sentences changed instead of a tangle of single-word edits.
Ignore case, whitespace and punctuation
- Ignore letter case
- Treats “Text” and “text” as the same.
- Whitespace
- Compare exactly, collapse runs of spaces into one, or ignore whitespace altogether.
- Ignore punctuation
- Compares the words and skips commas, full stops, quotes and symbols.
- Ignore accents
- Treats “café” and “cafe” as the same.
- Ignore blank lines
- Useful when one version has extra empty lines between list items or paragraphs.
- Normalize Unicode, Normalize line endings
- Two settings, both on by default. Letters that look identical but are stored differently, and Windows vs Mac line breaks, don't show up as changes.
The ignore rules only change what counts as a difference. Your two texts are never rewritten, and the tool reminds you when rules are active, so a result of “no differences” doesn't get mistaken for two identical files.
What the similarity percentage means
The similarity score is twice the number of matching pieces divided by the total pieces in both texts, shown as a percentage. Two identical texts score 100%; two texts with nothing in common score 0%. The pieces are whatever you're comparing by, so the same pair of texts can score differently in word mode and character mode. In word mode, spaces and punctuation are pieces too.
How to compare two Word documents or Google Docs
Microsoft Word has a built-in Compare feature under Review, then Compare, which produces a marked-up document. Google Docs has Tools, then Compare documents, which shows the changes as suggestions in a new Doc. Both are good when the files already live there.
This tool is quicker when the text is coming from different places, such as an email and a web page, when you want to ignore formatting and spacing, or when you need a CSV or diff file of every change.
Nothing is saved, nothing gets a public link
Some diff checkers save each comparison at a public web address. Here nothing is saved on a server: the comparison runs in your browser and there are no share links. A copy of your text stays in the tab so a reload doesn't lose it.
Common questions
How do I compare two texts for differences?
Paste the original on the left and the new version on the right. Differences are highlighted right away, and you can switch between word, line, sentence and character comparison.
Is this the same as a diff checker?
Yes. A diff checker is another name for a text comparison tool. This one can also export the changes as a simple .diff file with + and − lines.
Can I ignore spaces and capital letters?
Yes. In the Rules tab you can ignore letter case, collapse or ignore whitespace, and ignore punctuation, accents or blank lines.
What does the similarity percentage mean?
It's twice the number of matching pieces divided by the total pieces in both texts. 100% means identical under the current rules, 0% means nothing in common.
Can it check for plagiarism?
No. It compares two texts you provide. Plagiarism checkers compare a document against a huge database of other sources, which this tool doesn't have.
How do I compare two Word documents?
In Word, use Review, then Compare. Or copy the text of each document into the two boxes here to compare the words without the formatting.
Are my texts saved or shared?
No. The comparison runs in your browser. There are no saved comparisons and no share links.
Can I export the differences?
Yes, as a PDF or Word report, a CSV with one row per change, a JSON file, or a simple +/− .diff file. The PDF and Word reports list up to 250 changes; the CSV and diff include all of them.
How large can the texts be?
Imported files must be under 5 MB. Very long texts that are almost entirely different are shown as one large replacement block; switching to Lines usually gives a more detailed result.
Does it work for code?
Yes. Use Lines for code and structured text and turn on Ignore blank lines if needed. The .diff export is a readable +/− list, not a patch for git apply.
Sources
- Diff (history, algorithms and unified format)Wikipedia
- difflib ratio: 2.0 × M / TPython documentation
- Content similarity detectionWikipedia
- Compare document differencesMicrosoft Support