Text comparison · free · nothing uploaded
Compare two files
Your texts stay on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.
- 0bytes uploaded: the comparison runs on your device, even offline.
- 3levels of detail: line, word, character.
- 100%free: no account, no cookies, no ads.
Paste or drop two texts: their differences will appear here.
Drop a file in each box, or use the “Open a file” buttons: the differences appear right away. Files are read by your browser, not uploaded — that is what sets difftool.fr apart from comparison sites that send your documents to their servers.
Supported files
difftool.fr opens text files up to 10 MB each, and Word and PDF documents up to 20 MB:
| Type | Extensions |
|---|---|
| Documents | .docx (Word), .pdf |
| Text and notes | .txt, .md, .log |
| Data | .csv, .tsv, .json, .xml, .yml, .ini, .sql |
| Web and code | .html, .css, .js, .ts, .php, .py… |
The file name appears above the box, along with the detected encoding. You can then edit the text directly in the box: the comparison updates.
Word and PDF documents
Word (.docx) and PDF documents are accepted too: their text is extracted in your browser, then compared. What is specific to them (formatting, tracked changes, scanned PDFs) is explained on the Compare two Word documents and Compare two PDFs pages.
Encodings and line endings
UTF-8 files (the most common today) are read as they are. An older file saved by Windows software in Windows-1252 is detected automatically, so accents and the € sign display correctly.
Windows, Mac and Linux line endings are normalised before comparing, so two files that only differ by their line endings are recognised as identical.
Keeping a record of the differences
- “Print / PDF” produces a document with all the differences, ready to attach to a file or an email.
- “Download .diff” saves a .diff file named after the original file. Applied with the
patchcommand, it turns the original into the changed version.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The file is read by your browser, on your device, and compared there. Nothing is sent or kept, so you can compare confidential documents.
Can I compare two Word or PDF files?
Yes: drop them like any other file. Their text is extracted in your browser, then compared; formatting is not taken into account. The details are on the Compare two Word documents and Compare two PDFs pages.
Why do accented characters look wrong?
That is rare, because difftool.fr recognises UTF-8, UTF-16 and Windows-1252. If a file uses another encoding (Mac Roman, ISO-8859-15…), open it in a text editor, save it as UTF-8 and drop it again.
What is the maximum file size?
10 MB per text file and 20 MB per Word or PDF document. A message appears if a file is too large. That is plenty for text: 10 MB is thousands of pages.
Can I compare two files in different formats?
Yes: a .txt with a .md, a .docx with a .pdf, a .csv with a .txt… The comparison is about the text content, whatever the extension.