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Compare PDF

Spot every change between two versions of a contract, report or form, without reading both line by line.

  • Works in your browser
  • No sign-up
  • Free to use

How to use Compare PDF

  1. 1

    Pick the original PDF on the left and the changed PDF on the right.

  2. 2

    Press "Compare PDFs".

  3. 3

    Read the text changes. Removed lines are red, added lines are green, and the changed words inside a line are highlighted.

  4. 4

    Switch to "Visual" to see each page with the differences painted red, which also catches changes in images, stamps and layout.

What this tool does

Compare PDF shows what changed between two versions of a document. It lines up the text of both PDFs, marks every added, removed and changed line, and can also overlay the pages to show visual changes in red.

Features

  • Text comparison with removed lines in red, added lines in green and the changed words highlighted.
  • Unchanged parts folded away, so you see the changes with a little context around each one.
  • Page markers in the result, so you know on which page a change is.
  • Visual comparison of any page pair, with a percentage of how much of the page looks different.

Limits

  • Scanned PDFs have no text, so only the visual view works for them.
  • Tables and multi-column layouts are compared line by line, which can make some changes look bigger than they are.
  • The visual view compares pages with the same number; if a page was added in the middle, later pages are compared with their neighbours.
  • Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first.

Where your file is processed

This tool works in your browser: your PDFs are processed on your own device, so they aren't sent to our server for this tool. Some other tools on UtiloNest do use our server, and their pages say so.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of changes does it find?

The text view finds words, numbers and lines that were added, removed or changed, such as a new price, a different date or a deleted clause. The visual view compares how each page looks, so it also shows changes the text can't, such as a replaced logo, a moved table or a new signature.

Why do I see changes on pages where only the layout moved?

The visual view compares pages pixel by pixel. If a paragraph is added on page 2, everything below it moves down, so the rest of that page shows as changed even though the words are the same. The text view isn't affected by that, so read both views together.

Does it work with scanned PDFs?

Only the visual view does. A scan is a picture of each page and has no text to compare. To compare the wording of scans, turn both into searchable PDFs with OCR first.

Are spaces and line breaks counted as changes?

Extra spaces are ignored, so a PDF that was only reformatted doesn't flood the result with changes. A line that was broken in a different place can still show as changed.

Where is my file processed?

In your browser. This tool works on your own device, so the file isn't sent to our server for it.

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