Text Compare
Compare two texts word-by-word with a color-coded inline diff.
About the Text Compare
Finding exactly what changed between two versions of a text is notoriously hard: by the second or third paragraph, your eyes start skipping the identical parts and missing the real edits. The Text Compare tool solves this with a precise, word-by-word diff. Paste the original into Text A and the revised version into Text B, and the tool computes a color-coded inline comparison where removed words appear struck through in red and added words stand out in green, with unchanged text left neutral. It is not a line-by-line diff but a true word-level diff, so a single swapped adjective inside a sentence is caught immediately, and newline changes are preserved as visible breaks. Two toggles refine the comparison — Ignore case and Ignore whitespace — and a stat row reports words in each text plus common, added, and removed token counts. When both sides match, a green banner confirms the texts are identical, noting any case or whitespace allowances. Editors, developers reviewing copy changes, and legal teams tracking contract revisions all get certainty instead of squinting.
Examples
Text A: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. A classic pangram. Text B: The quick red fox jumps over the sleepy dog. A famous pangram indeed.
Word-level diff: brown (red, struck through) → red (green) lazy (red) → sleepy (green) classic (red) → famous (green) + indeed (green) Stats: Words in A: 12 · Words in B: 13 Added: 4 · Removed: 3 · Common: 11
Text A: Hello world Text B: hello WORLD
Status: Texts are identical (case-insensitive match) Words in A: 2 · Words in B: 2 Common: 2 · Added: 0 · Removed: 0
Text A: first line second line Text B: first line second line
Status: Texts are identical (whitespace ignored) Words in A: 4 · Words in B: 4 Common: 4 · Added: 0 · Removed: 0
How to use
- 1
Paste the original version into Text A and the revised version into Text B.
- 2
Review the Word-level diff: green highlights are added words, red struck-through words were removed, and common words stay neutral.
- 3
Toggle Ignore case or Ignore whitespace to filter out those difference types.
- 4
Check the stat row — Words in A, Words in B, Common, Added, Removed — for a numeric summary.
- 5
Click Clear to reset both panes; a green banner confirms when the texts are identical.
Common use cases
- Reviewing edited article drafts against the original version.
- Verifying contract or policy revisions word by word.
- Checking code review copy changes between commits.
- Confirming API documentation updates match the release notes.
- Spotting accidental edits in pasted translations.
- Validating that a CMS import preserved copy exactly.
Best practices
- Compare clean copies: normalize encodings first so the diff is not polluted by invisible character changes.
- Leave Ignore case off for code and identifiers where casing is meaningful.
- Use Ignore whitespace when reviewing copy that passed through different editors or line wrapping.
- Read the diff in both directions — green words in B are additions, red words in A are deletions.
- Tighten the comparison to short sections when a large document produces a noisy diff.
Tips
- Turn on Ignore whitespace when comparing copy that passed through different editors or line-wrapping.
- Keep Ignore case off for code comparisons — a casing change often signals a real rename.
- The diff is word-level, so paste whole paragraphs instead of single lines to catch mid-sentence edits.
- Check the Common stat first: a high common count means only small targeted edits, a low one means a rewrite.
Frequently asked questions
Explore more text tools
Browse the full collection of text tools on the hub, or jump back to all categories.