About the Intersect Text Lists
Give the tool two lists, one item per line, and it returns the items that appear in both. The result keeps the order of the first list and shows each shared item once. You can ignore capital letters so that Banana and banana count as the same item, and the counts under the result tell you how long each list was. It is the quick way to find customers who appear in two mailing lists, keywords shared by two pages or files present in both of two folders. It runs in your browser and the lists are not uploaded.
Updated October 2026
How to use the Intersect Text Lists
- 1Paste the first list into the first box, one item per line.
- 2Paste the second list into the second box.
- 3Decide whether capital letters should be ignored.
- 4Read the common items on the right.
- 5Copy the result or download it.
What an intersection tells you
The intersection of two lists is the set of things they have in common. It answers questions such as who is on both the newsletter list and the customer list, which tags two articles share, or which products appear in both of two catalogues.
Because the result is a list again, you can feed it into other tools such as the sorter or the duplicate remover.
Getting clean matches
Matching is exact except for capital letters. A stray space inside an item or a different spelling will stop a match. Clean the lists first with the text cleaning tools, and decide whether capitals matter.
- Trim spaces
- Use one spelling
- Ignore capitals if the source is inconsistent
Reading the counts
The note says how many items are shared and how long each list was. If the shared count is zero, check that both lists use the same format, for example the same case and the same kind of identifier.
Example
If the first list holds apple, banana, date and elder, and the second holds cherry, banana, fig and date, the common items are banana and date. With the ignore-capitals option on, Banana in one list and banana in the other still match.
The result is itself a plain list, so you can sort it, merge it or intersect it again with another list.
Phone and computer
On a phone, paste into the box, adjust the capital-letters option, and tap Copy to carry the result into another app. On a computer you can also download it as a file. The two boxes sit side by side on a wide screen and one above the other on a narrow one, so you can compare input and result without zooming. Nothing you paste is uploaded or stored.
Good to know
Only one copy of each shared item is listed, even if it appears several times in the first list. The comparison trims each line, so an accidental space at the end of an item does not stop a match. The lengths of both lists are shown so you notice if a paste was cut short. To find what differs use Difference of Text Lists, and to clean doubles first use Remove Duplicate Lines.
Features
- Shows only items in both lists
- Keeps the order of the first list
- Each shared item listed once
- Optional case-insensitive match
- Shows the size of both lists
- Private: nothing is uploaded
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the common items in two lists?
Paste each list in its own box. The result lists every item that appears in both.
Does the order matter?
The result follows the order of the first list. The order of the second list does not matter.
Are blank lines and extra spaces ignored?
Blank lines are skipped and spaces at the start and end of each item are trimmed before comparing.
What is the difference between intersect and merge?
Intersecting keeps only what is shared. Merging joins both lists. Use the Merge Text Lists tool for that.
Can I compare more than two lists?
Intersect two, then intersect the result with the third list.
Is my data uploaded?
No. The comparison is done in your browser.