Compare two Word drafts without uploading them
What the highlight means
Comparison is for two .docx drafts of the same document. The sample pair changes “Delivery: 10 days” to “Delivery: 15 days” and “invoice” to “packing list”. Open both sample files, run the compare, and look for those words in the highlight before you trust the tool with a contract. The highlight is a reading aid. It is not a tracked-change file you can send back to Word as an official revision, and it does not list comments, headers, footers, or images as separate review items. Text longer than the tool’s limit is not compared. Drafts that share little wording are reported as unlike documents instead of a wall of red.
Both files stay in the browser. There is no upload step and no account. The 20 MB ceiling applies to each .docx. If a file is refused, it is too big or it is not a .docx the page can unpack. Comparison cannot see text that lives only in a text box, a header, or a comment. If the change you care about was made there, you will not see it in the highlight, and you should read those parts yourself. The guide to comparing drafts describes a careful order: samples first, then copies of your files, then a human reading of the highlight.
After the highlight
Read the changed numbers yourself. A highlight can draw your eye and still be misread if you only skim. Write down the differences you accept, then change the source .docx in Word or another editor. This page does not write a merged legal copy for you. When the revised document is the one you want to send as PDF, use Word to PDF and remember that the PDF is a picture of the preview. When you need the old and new files bound together instead of compared, use merge, which concatenates rather than highlights.
Read the change, then decide
Comparison is for two .docx drafts of the same piece of writing. Put the earlier file first and the revision second, then read only the highlighted body text. The public sample changes “Delivery: 10 days” to “Delivery: 15 days” and “invoice” to “packing list.” Your file should be checked the same way: find the number or the noun that matters and confirm the highlight is that change, not a formatting ripple you can ignore. Comments, tracked changes, headers, and text boxes are outside this view. If the important sentence lives in a text box, this page will not argue with you about it. Open the files in Word and read that box yourself.
Nothing in this comparison is uploaded. The two files are unpacked in the browser, the body text is aligned, and the highlight stays on the page until you leave. There is no account that stores the pair, and there is no “share this diff” link that would post the drafts. If you need to send the difference to someone else, describe it yourself or send the files through a channel you already trust. Do not paste a confidential draft into an unrelated AI box on another site and call that the same job. The Word studio also merges and exports, but those are different buttons with different results. Comparison does not rewrite the revision into a new .docx for you.