Text compare

Compare two texts line by line

Paste the original in “Your text” and the new version in “Changed text” to compare the two texts. “Result” updates as you type and marks every line with a prefix: two spaces if the line didn't change, a minus sign and a space if it was removed, and a plus sign and a space if it was added. “Swap texts” trades the two boxes, in case you pasted them the wrong way round.

Say you paste three lines from a quote, and in the new version only the price goes from 120 to 150 USD. The result keeps the delivery and payment lines as they were and shows the price twice, once for each version, with the removed line first:

• Delivery: Friday, unchanged, with two spaces in front
• - Price: 120 USD, removed from the original
• + Price: 150 USD, added in the new version
• Payment: 50% upfront, unchanged

Why one letter flags the whole line

This text compare tool works with whole lines. Change 120 to 150 and the number isn't highlighted on its own: you get the old line with a minus and the new one with a plus, one after the other. The same goes for an accent, a comma, or a space at the end of a line that you can't see but that still counts. To find the exact change, read those two lines side by side. These rules decide what counts as different:

• Capital letters: “Hello world” and “hello world” are different lines
• Trailing spaces: a line with one extra space at the end shows as changed even though it looks the same
• Blank lines: they count too, so a blank line you deleted shows up as a lone minus sign
• Line endings: Windows line breaks and the ones other systems use are treated the same, so they don't create fake differences
• Moved lines: a line that changed position shows as removed where it was and added where it is now

Diff checker limits: lines and line pairs

Each text can have up to 10,000 lines. When the texts differ, there's a second cap: the line count of the first text times the line count of the second can't go over one million. For example, 1,000 lines against 1,000 works, but 2,000 against 600 doesn't, and you'll see “Compare fewer than one million line pairs.” Split long documents into sections and compare each part. Two identical texts, or one empty box, skip that cap.

Compare texts without uploading them

The comparison happens in your browser, so neither version leaves your phone or computer, and Typedly doesn't keep a copy or a history of what you compare. It's the safer choice when the text is private or hasn't been published yet, which is often why you need a diff in the first place:

• Contracts and quotes: check which clause or figure changed between two drafts
• Essays and homework: compare your draft with the version your teacher sent back
• Code and config files: find the line someone edited
• Lists: paste two lists of names or products, one item per line, and see what's missing or extra

Tricks for comparing paragraphs and lists

A whole paragraph with no line breaks counts as one line, so any change marks the full paragraph as removed and added. For a finer comparison, put one sentence per line in both texts before you paste them. Each difference then lands on a short line and is easy to spot, and the unchanged sentences stay out of the way.

Lists are easier to compare when both are in the same order. If the order doesn't matter, sort both lists with the Alphabetizer first, so a name that only moved doesn't show up as removed and added. If capital letters don't matter either, run both texts through the Case converter. “Copy result” and “Download TXT” keep the marked-up result for later.