Compare Text

Paste two versions and see exactly what changed — line by line, word by word, side by side or inline. Both texts stay in your browser.

Original

0 words · 0 characters

Revised

0 words · 0 characters

—

Similarity

+0

Words added

−0

Words removed

+0

Word change

0 lines added0 lines removed0 lines changed1 unchanged

Differences

Paste both versions above to see what changed.

Runs in your browser. Your text is never uploaded.

What the options do

Changes only hides the unchanged lines, which is what you want on a long document where three paragraphs moved.

Match case is on by default. Turn it off when a document has been through a style pass and capitalisation changes are not what you are looking for.

Ignore spacing treats runs of whitespace as equal, so re-indented or re-wrapped text stops showing as changed. Essential when comparing text out of two different editors.

Ignore punctuation compares only the words. Useful for checking whether the substance survived a copy edit.

Where this is useful

  • Reviewing an edit — see precisely what a collaborator changed.
  • Contracts and agreements — find the clause that moved between drafts.
  • Translations — check a revised version against the approved one.
  • Web copy — confirm the page that went live matches the version you signed off.
  • Your own drafts — see how much of the first draft actually survived.

The summary above the comparison gives you the numbers rather than the detail: words added, words removed, and what share of the original survived unchanged.

Frequently asked questions

How does the comparison work?
Lines are matched first using a longest-common-subsequence diff — the same approach version control uses — so moved and unchanged blocks are recognised rather than reported as wholesale changes. Where a line has been rewritten, the words inside it are then compared, and additions and deletions are highlighted individually.
What does the similarity percentage mean?
The share of words the two versions have in common. 100% means identical; 0% means nothing survived. It is a quick way to judge how heavy an edit was, not a plagiarism measure.
Can it compare documents rather than pasted text?
Copy the text out of each document and paste it in. Because everything runs in your browser, this is safe to do with contracts, legal drafts and anything else confidential — nothing is uploaded.
Is there a size limit?
Very large texts are handled by matching the common start and end first, then comparing only the middle. If two enormous blocks are completely different, the tool reports the block as replaced rather than freezing your tab trying to align it.

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