Find and replace is one of the most useful editing operations there is — swapping a name throughout a document, fixing a repeated typo, or reformatting data in bulk. Our free online find and replace tool does it instantly, with live match highlighting and full regular expression support, all in your browser.
What Is Find and Replace?
Find and replace searches a body of text for every occurrence of a word or pattern and swaps it for something else. Instead of editing each instance by hand, you change them all at once. A good find-and-replace tool offers options for case sensitivity, whole-word matching, and pattern matching with regular expressions.
How to Find and Replace Text Online
- Paste your text into the input box.
- Enter the text to find and the text to replace it with.
- See matches highlighted live as you type your search term.
- Toggle options — case sensitive, whole word, or regex mode.
- Click Replace or Replace All and copy the result.
Because matching is live, you can confirm exactly what will change before you commit to the replacement.
Matching Options Explained
Case sensitive — When enabled, "Apple" and "apple" are treated as different. When disabled, they match regardless of case.
Whole word — Matches only complete words, so searching for "cat" will not change "category" or "concatenate".
Regular expressions — For advanced replacements, regex lets you match patterns rather than exact text — for example, finding all numbers, all email addresses, or all words starting with a capital letter.
Common Uses for Find and Replace
Bulk editing — Rename a term, product, or person throughout an entire document at once.
Data cleanup — Standardise formatting, swap delimiters, or strip unwanted characters from a list.
Code refactoring — Quickly rename a variable or update a repeated string across a block of code.
Fixing repeated mistakes — Correct a typo or wrong term everywhere it appears in one step.
Tips for Safe Replacements
- Use whole-word matching to avoid accidentally changing parts of larger words.
- Preview the highlights before replacing so you know exactly how many matches will change.
- Start with regex carefully — test your pattern on a small sample before running Replace All on a large document.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the find and replace tool free? Yes — it is free, requires no sign-up, and runs entirely in your browser.
Does it support regular expressions? Yes. You can switch on regex mode to find and replace by pattern, not just exact text.
Is my text uploaded anywhere? No. All matching and replacing happens locally in your browser, so your text stays private.
Can I replace just one occurrence instead of all? Yes. You can replace a single match or use Replace All to change every occurrence at once.
Need to change a word everywhere it appears? Paste your text and find and replace it in seconds.