Compare Two Columns in Excel
Find which values appear in both columns, and which are missing from one. Runs entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded.
Drop your file here or click to upload
Supports .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsb · up to 50MB · or paste a file from your clipboard
How to Compare Two Columns in Excel
- Add the workbook - Drop an .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, or .xlsb file. It is read locally in your browser.
- Pick the two columns - Choose the sheet and the two column letters you want to reconcile.
- Read the three lists - Values in both, values only in the first column, and values only in the second.
- Export or copy the formula - Download the result as a workbook, or copy the equivalent COUNTIF to keep in your own file.
Why the Match You Can See Does Not Register
Two entries that look identical often are not. The usual culprits are a trailing space left by a copy-paste, a difference in capitalisation, or a number in one column stored as text in the other. Excel's =A2=B2 is exact and case-insensitive; COUNTIF is case-insensitive but still trips over whitespace.
Both of those are switches here, on by default, because ignoring them is what people almost always mean by "compare". Turn them off when you genuinely need an exact match.
Order Does Not Matter
This compares the two columns as sets, not row by row. Value 40 in the first column matches value 40 anywhere in the second, which is the right behaviour for reconciling two exports that were sorted differently. If you need a strict row-for-row diff instead, the Excel Compare tool aligns two files cell by cell.