Edit counter · Free · Nothing uploaded
Edit Counter
An edit counter compares a draft before and after editing and counts what changed. This one shows the words kept, cut, added and moved, not only the net change, so replacing 100 words with 100 others reads as 200 words changed rather than none. It also reads a Word file’s tracked changes.
The example drafts: 57 words to 49, a net change of −8 made of 16 cut, 8 added and 8 moved.
Nothing typed yet. Both drafts are kept in this browser only.
- Net change
- 0
- Words kept
- 0
- Words cut
- 0
- Words added
- 0
- Words moved
- 0
- Words changed
- 0
- Kept word for word
- –
- Changed per 1,000
- –
Before and after
| Count | Original | Edited | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Words | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Characters | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Without spaces | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sentences | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paragraphs | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What changed
Each change is listed here with a few words either side.
Compared in this browser. Both drafts are kept on this device so they survive a reload, and are never sent anywhere: Clear both removes them.
Paste the original and the edited draft, or open a Word file with tracked changes. The words kept, cut, added and moved update as you type, and nothing leaves your browser.
An edit count, for a piece of writing, is how much of it changed between two drafts: the words removed, the words added and the net change in length. A word processor’s count gives only the net, which hides an edit that replaces as much as it removes.
- No sign-up
- Nothing uploaded
- Rule stated
- Works offline
- Reads tracked changes
Key facts
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Price | Free, no sign-up, nothing to install |
| Counts | Words kept, cut, added and moved, net change and words changed |
| Compared by | Myers’ difference algorithm (1986), word by word |
| A word is | The word counter’s rule: a run of letters or digits |
| Moved | A sentence of 4 words or more, identical in both drafts |
| Not a word change | Punctuation, spaces, line breaks, curly or straight apostrophes |
| Files | A .docx’s tracked changes, read on your device |
| Where drafts are kept | This browser only |
How to count the words changed in an edit
Put both drafts in, read the board, then read the list of changes.
Put in the original
Paste the first draft into the Original box.
Put in the edited draft
Paste the edited version into the Edited box, or press Copy the original into Edited and edit it there.
Or open a Word file
A .docx with tracked changes fills both boxes: changes rejected in the first, accepted in the second.
Read the board
The net change is at the top, with the words cut, added and moved under it.
Check the counts
The before-and-after table gives words, characters, sentences and paragraphs.
Read the changes
The list shows each change with the words around it, cut struck through and added underlined.
Who uses an edit counter
Anyone who needs to know how much an edit changed, not only how long the result is.
Writers revising
Progress on a rewrite that cuts as much as it adds, which a running word count shows as standing still.
Editors
The size of an edit to report to a client or to price, in words changed rather than the net.
Translators and revisers
The amended text in a Word file with Track Changes, counted without accepting or rejecting anything.
Students
How far a second draft moved from the first, and whether a cut to a word limit kept the argument.
Teams
What changed between two versions of a policy, a contract clause or a press release.
Teachers
How much a student’s resubmission changed from the first attempt.
Why the net change hides the edit: kept, cut, added and moved
A word processor’s count, and the one edit counter in the search results, give the net change: the words in the edited draft less the words in the original. The net is what a limit cares about, but it hides the editing. Replace a hundred words with a hundred others and the net change is zero. Cut a long sentence and write a short one in its place, and the net shows only the difference between them. As a Scrivener user put it on the Literature & Latte forum, a counter that only shows the net makes cutting look like negative progress and mixed editing barely move the number.
This counter compares the drafts word by word and splits the net into its parts:
Kept: words in both drafts, in the same order.
Cut: words in the original that are not in the edited draft.
Added: words in the edited draft that are not in the original.
Moved: whole sentences of four words or more that are word for word the same in both drafts but in a different place.
The parts always add up. The original is kept + cut + moved; the edited draft is kept + added + moved; and the net change is added − cut. Words changed is cut + added, the size of the edit whatever it did to the length.
| Measure | Words | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Original | 57 | Six sentences in two paragraphs |
| Edited | 49 | Six sentences in two paragraphs |
| Net change | −8 | All a net count shows |
| Kept | 33 | Untouched, in order |
| Cut | 16 | Removed, or replaced |
| Added | 8 | New words |
| Moved | 8 | One sentence, from the second paragraph to the first |
| Words changed | 24 | Three times the net change |
The example, worked. The original meeting note has 57 words and the edited one 49, a net change of −8. Behind it are 16 words cut and 8 added: numbers became figures, the became three, half past went in, ahead went out, and a 16-word sentence about the meeting running long became the 7-word The meeting is capped at forty minutes, keeping 3 of its words. One 8-word sentence, Anyone can add an item to the agenda, moved up a paragraph and counts as moved rather than as 8 cut and 8 added. 41 of the 57 original words survive word for word, kept or moved: 71%.
How each kind of edit is counted
The drafts are split into words by the word counter’s rule: a word is a run of letters or digits, and an apostrophe, a hyphen or a full stop between two of them joins them. So the totals here are the word counter’s totals for each draft; other tools split hyphens, dashes and numbers differently, as why word counts differ shows, so on ordinary prose their totals can differ by a word or two in a hundred. Then the two lists of words are lined up with Myers’ difference algorithm, published by Eugene W. Myers in 1986 (“An O(ND) Difference Algorithm and Its Variations”, Algorithmica 1) and the default in git. It finds the longest run of words the two drafts share in order, and everything else is cut or added. Of all the ways to explain the difference, it picks one with the fewest words cut and added.
Four choices decide the counts, and they are stated here because a different tool may make them differently:
Words are compared exactly. A change of capital letter, the to The, is one word cut and one added: an editor made it, so it counts.
Punctuation, spaces and line breaks are not words. A comma added, a full stop turned into an exclamation mark or a paragraph split in two changes no word; the character counts in the before-and-after table show it.
A curly and a straight apostrophe are the same. Word processors swap one for the other as you type, so it's and it’s are one word unchanged.
A moved sentence is moved. A sentence of four words or more that appears word for word in both drafts, in a different place, counts as moved. The drafts are then compared again without it, so the move does not disturb how the rest lines up. A sentence that moved and was also edited counts as cut and added, and so does a moved sentence under four words, because a short sentence such as Yes. turns up in many places by chance.
| The edit | Original | Edited | Cut | Added | Moved | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A word replaced | The numbers were good. | The figures were good. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A word inserted | The numbers were good. | The numbers were very good. | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 |
| A word deleted | The numbers were good. | The were good. | 1 | 0 | 0 | −1 |
| A capital letter | the numbers were good. | The numbers were good. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Punctuation only | The numbers were good. | The numbers, were good! | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A straight apostrophe made curly | It's done. | It’s done. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A paragraph split in two | One two three four. Five six seven eight. | One two three four. ¶ Five six seven eight. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Two words hyphenated into one | A well known fact. | A well-known fact. | 2 | 1 | 0 | −1 |
| A sentence moved unchanged | Alpha beta gamma delta. Kept one here now. Kept two here now. | Kept one here now. Kept two here now. Alpha beta gamma delta. | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| A sentence moved and edited | Alpha beta gamma delta. Kept one here now. Kept two here now. | Kept one here now. Kept two here now. Alpha beta gamma epsilon. | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| A short sentence moved | Yes. Kept one here now. Kept two here now. | Kept one here now. Kept two here now. Yes. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Two rows have a net change of zero and real edits behind them: the replaced word and the capital letter. Hyphenating well known into well-known is a net change of −1, because two words became one, and it shows as two cut and one added.
Counting a Word file’s tracked changes without uploading it
Editors and translators often work in Microsoft Word with Track Changes on, and the question they ask on forums such as ProZ.com is how to count only the amended text. A word processor counts the document as one text. The usual workaround is to save two copies, accept every change in one and reject every change in the other, and count each.
Open a Word file does that in one step, in this browser. A .docx file is a zip archive; the page opens it on your device, reads the document’s main text and its revision marks, and fills both boxes:
| In the file | Original box | Edited box |
|---|---|---|
| Text with no revision | Yes | Yes |
| A tracked insertion | No | Yes |
| A tracked deletion | Yes | No |
| A tracked move | At its old place | At its new place |
| A formatting change (bold, font, style) | Not a word change: the text is the same in both | |
| Text boxes, footnotes, headers, footers, comments, field codes | Not read, as in the word counter | |
The original box is the document with every change rejected, and the edited box the document with every change accepted. A tracked move of a whole sentence is then counted as moved like any other, and a move of part of a sentence as cut and added. If the file has no tracked changes, both boxes hold the same text and the page says so: paste an earlier version into the first box, or edit the second. Older .doc files, PDFs and .odt files are not read; copy the two versions out of them and paste.
Kept word for word, and words changed per 1,000
Two figures describe the size of an edit rather than its effect on the length:
Kept word for word is the share of the original that survives unchanged, kept or moved: (kept + moved) ÷ original words. It is rounded down, so 100% means nothing was cut.
Changed per 1,000 is words changed for every thousand words of the original: (cut + added) ÷ original words × 1,000. It lets a 500-word letter and a 50,000-word manuscript be compared.
| Rate | Sum | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Kept word for word | (33 + 8) ÷ 57 | 71% |
| Changed per 1,000 | (16 + 8) ÷ 57 × 1,000 | 421 |
The changed rate can pass 1,000: rewrite every word of a draft and each one is cut once and its replacement added once, 2,000 per 1,000. There is no standard figure for a light or a heavy edit; publishers, agencies and journals each set their own, and they measure it in different ways, often by the hour or by the page. Use the rates to compare your own drafts and edits with each other, and if a contract prices by words changed, agree with the client first what counts as a change, using the table above.
What this edit counter does not do
Counting your edits on Wikipedia? That is a different edit counter: the number of edits an account has made to a wiki. Wikipedia shows it in your preferences, and the XTools Edit Counter breaks it down; Wikipedia’s article on edit count explains it. This page counts the words that changed between two drafts of a text.
| It does | It does not |
|---|---|
| Count the words kept, cut, added and moved between two drafts | Count edits to a wiki, or keystrokes and time spent editing |
| List each change with a few words either side | Show the two drafts side by side in full, as a document comparison does |
| Treat a whole sentence moved unchanged as moved | Recognise a sentence that was moved and reworded, or a paraphrase: those count as cut and added |
| Read a .docx file’s tracked changes on your device | Read .doc, PDF or .odt files, or send your drafts anywhere |
| Measure how much changed | Judge whether the edit made the writing better |
This edit counter, a net edit counter, Track Changes or two word counts
Four ways to see what an edit did to a draft, and where each stops.
| This edit counter | A net edit counter | Track Changes | Two word counts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net change | Yes | Yes | Count each version yourself | Yes, by subtracting |
| Words cut and added | Yes, separately | No | Marked, not counted | No |
| Moved sentences | Counted as moved | No | Marked as moved | No |
| Two drafts you already have | Paste both | Only edits made in its box | Word’s Compare documents | Yes |
| Rule stated | Word rule, diff and moves | No | Not documented | Each tool’s own |
| Where your text goes | Nowhere: this browser only | Often an account | Your computer, or the provider’s cloud | Depends on the tool |
More writing tools
Every writing tool on the site runs in your browser, needs no sign-up, and sends nothing anywhere.
Counts & lengths3
Words, characters, pages and what changed in an edit, counted the way you need them.
Word counter
Words, characters and sentences as you type, the count under other rules, sourced reading time, Flesch scores.
Open word counter →Character counter
Characters with and without spaces, and as X, text messages, web forms and bytes count them, causes named.
Open character counter →Words per page calculator
Words to pages and back from the font, size, spacing, paper and margins, your own text or a document.
Open words per page calculator →
All 4 writing tools, by category: Counts & lengths (4)
Frequently asked questions
How do I count the words I changed between two drafts?
Paste the first draft into the Original box and the second into the Edited box. The board shows the net change, and under it the words cut, added and moved, which add up to the two totals. Words changed, cut plus added, is the size of the edit. The list below the table shows each change with the words around it.
Why does my word count barely change after a heavy edit?
Because a word count shows only the net: the words added less the words cut. A rewrite that replaces about as much as it removes leaves the total nearly where it was. The example drafts here lose 8 words net, but 16 were cut and 8 added, 24 words changed. Counting cut and added separately shows the work.
Does a moved paragraph count as an edit?
Here, a sentence of four words or more that is word for word the same in both drafts, but in a different place, counts as moved, not as cut and added. A moved paragraph counts as moved, a sentence at a time. A sentence that was moved and also reworded counts as cut and added, because it is no longer the same sentence.
How do I count only the tracked changes in a Word document?
Open the .docx file here. The page reads it on your device and fills the Original box with every change rejected and the Edited box with every change accepted, then counts the words cut, added and moved between them. Inserted text counts as added, deleted text as cut, and a tracked move of a whole sentence as moved.
Does changing a capital letter or a comma count as an edited word?
A capital letter does: the to The is one word cut and one added, because the word changed. A comma, a full stop or any other punctuation does not, and neither do spaces or line breaks, because they are not words. They do change the character counts, which the before-and-after table shows. Swapping a straight apostrophe for a curly one changes nothing.
What is the difference between net change and words changed?
Net change is the edited draft’s words less the original’s: it says whether the text got longer or shorter. Words changed is the words cut plus the words added: it says how much editing was done. Replacing 10 words with 10 others is a net change of 0 and 20 words changed.
How is the difference between the two texts found?
With Myers’ difference algorithm, published in 1986 and the default in git. It lines up the longest run of words the two drafts share in order, and counts the rest as cut or added, choosing the fewest changes that explain the difference. Words are split by the word counter’s stated rule, so each total matches the word counter.
Is this the Wikipedia edit counter?
No. Wikipedia’s edit counters, such as XTools, count how many edits an account has made to a wiki. This edit counter counts the words that changed between two drafts of a piece of writing: kept, cut, added and moved. For a wiki account, look at your preferences on the wiki or at XTools.
Are my drafts uploaded or saved?
They are saved in this browser’s storage on your device, so a reload does not lose them, and they are never uploaded: the comparison, and reading a .docx file, happen on your device. Clear both deletes them. On a shared computer, clear the boxes when you finish, as you would close a document.
Related guides
Longer answers to the questions behind the numbers.
- Reference
Types of counters explained
Synchronous vs asynchronous, mod-N, ring and Johnson, industrial and PLC counters, plus mechanical and software counters.
- Counting
Why word counts differ between tools
The same sentence is 26 words to one counter and 39 to another. Four counting rules side by side, and how to meet a hard limit whichever one a form uses.
- Build it
How to make a counter
Twenty lines gets you counting. Here is what to add after that, and why.