Compare PDFs
See every difference between two PDFs, word by word or as an overlay.
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Files are encrypted in transit and deleted after 2 hours. You can delete them sooner.
To compare two PDFs, add the old and the new version to Compare PDFs and select Compare PDFs; every added, removed or changed word is highlighted, with an overlay view for drawings.
How to compare two PDFs in 3 steps
- 1
Choose the original and the changed PDF. Use Swap if they are in the wrong order.
- 2
Look through the changes as text, as a visual overlay or side by side.
- 3
Select Compare PDFs to download a report with every change marked.
What can Compare PDFs do?
- Word-level text comparison with counts of inserted, deleted and changed text.
- Click a change to jump to it, and search the list of changes.
- Visual overlay shows what only the original has in red and what only the changed file has in blue.
- Side by side view with synchronised scrolling.
- Options to ignore case, spacing and punctuation.
- A report PDF with a summary page and highlights on the changed document.
How do I compare two PDF files?
To compare two PDF files, add the original and the changed version to Compare PDFs; every change is listed and shown on the page. When a contract comes back with edits or a report is revised, comparing by eye is slow and unreliable. If nothing differs, you see No differences found, and you can still download the report.
Which comparison view should I use?
Use Text changes for wording, and the visual overlay for drawings, images and layout.
- Text changes compares words and lists every change.
- Visual overlay draws both pages on top of each other. Anything that differs is tinted: red for what only the original has, blue for what only the changed file has.
- Side by side shows the two documents next to each other and scrolls them together.
For scanned documents, run OCR PDF first to get a text comparison.
Can I share the differences?
Yes. Download a report PDF with a summary page and the changed document annotated with a highlight for every change. The report is created on our servers and deleted automatically after 2 hours.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the differences between two PDFs?
Add both versions to Compare PDFs. Every inserted, deleted or changed word is listed with its page, and you can click a change to jump to it on the page.
How does the text comparison work?
We read the text of both files in reading order and compare it word by word. Each difference is shown as a change from the old words to the new ones, with options to ignore case, spacing and punctuation.
Which file should be the original?
The older version. Changes are described as going from the original to the changed file, and Swap reverses them.
Can I compare scanned PDFs?
Partly. The visual overlay works on any file, but text comparison needs a text layer, so run OCR on scans first.
Can I compare two PDFs with different page counts?
Text is compared across the whole document, so added or removed pages show up as inserted or deleted text.
What is in the comparison report?
A summary page with the counts and the list of changes, followed by the changed document with each change highlighted. You also get the original with deletions marked.
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Last updated October 23, 2026