Zero Snippet

Find & replace tool — bulk search plain text or regex in the browser

Use this free online find and replace when you need a fast search and replace pass on long paste: renaming tokens in a config dump, fixing a repeated typo across an article, normalizing separators in an export, or prototyping regex replacements before you commit them in code. Switch between literal plain-text matching (where dots and parentheses are ordinary characters) and JavaScript regular expressions with optional ignore case, multiline, and dot-all flags. Every match is replaced in one shot (global behavior). Processing stays in your browser—upload a .txt file or paste directly, then copy the result. Pair this with our text diff checker to verify before-and-after, or regex tester when you are iterating on complex patterns.

Mode
Result

2 matches replaced. Input length 150 → output 154 characters.

Why use a browser-based find and replace?

Editors like VS Code excel at project-wide refactors, but many tasks are single-buffer: a CSV snippet from a ticket, a log excerpt, a markdown draft, or SQL copied from a monitoring UI. A dedicated bulk find replace page avoids opening heavy IDEs, respects air-gapped or locked-down machines, and keeps sensitive paste on the client. You still get regex power when you need pattern-based substitution and literal mode when special characters must stay literal.

Content and support teams often search for case insensitive find and replace to align product names; developers search for regex find replace online to strip phone formats or ticket IDs. After editing, the word counter helps confirm length limits, and the whitespace remover tidies spacing if paste introduced odd breaks.

How to use this find and replace tool (step by step)

  1. Paste your document into the left panel or click Upload .txt to load a UTF-8 file. Load sample demonstrates a small multi-line example.
  2. Choose Plain text for literal strings, or Regular expression for JS RegExp syntax. In plain mode, toggle Match case when capitalization must match exactly.
  3. Enter Find and Replace with. In regex mode, use $1, $2 for capture groups and $& for the full match in the replacement. Enable i, m, or s flags when your pattern needs them.
  4. Read the match count and character lengths, then copy the result from the right panel into your destination app.

Plain text vs regex: quick guide

Plain text escapes regex metacharacters for you, so searching for price $10.00 is safe. Turn off match case to fold TODO and todo together. Regex mode is for digits (\d+), optional groups, boundaries, and multiline anchors—ideal when the same shape appears with different values. Invalid patterns surface a clear error without mutating your text.

When you only need to collapse repeated rows instead of in-line edits, use the duplicate line remover. For consistent identifier casing after replacements, try the text case converter.

Keywords and workflows people search for

Common intents include replace text in document online, bulk rename in a paste, fix double spaces, swap delimiters, strip HTML entities from a fragment, or rehearse a javascript regex replace before dropping it into Node or a browser app. This page supports those flows with live output and counts. For sorting lines after substitution, use the line sorter.

Privacy and limits

Find and replace runs locally; large documents may feel slower on older hardware. For multi-gigabyte logs, prefer streaming CLI tools. This interface targets articles, configs, tickets, and spreadsheet-sized paste.

Related text and string tools

Browse the full Text & String Tools section on the home page. Highlights:

  • Word Counter — Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and estimated reading time for articles and limits.
  • Text Case Converter — Switch between uppercase, lowercase, title, camelCase, snake_case, and kebab-case in one pass.
  • Text Diff Checker — Compare two text versions with line-level highlights for copy, legal, and content workflows.
  • Duplicate Line Remover — Deduplicate pasted lists with case-sensitive or insensitive matching for clean datasets.
  • Text Reverser — Reverse full text, words per line, or each line—quick puzzles, tests, and obfuscation demos.
  • Slug Generator — Turn titles into URL-safe, lowercase, hyphenated slugs for blogs, products, and routes.
  • Line Sorter — Sort lines A–Z, Z–A, by length, or randomly to tidy logs, lists, and imports.
  • Whitespace Remover — Trim edges and normalize spaces so pasted content fits forms, CSVs, and code blocks.
  • Text to Binary Converter — Encode text to binary strings or decode binary back to readable characters for learning and demos.
  • ROT13 Encoder & Decoder — Apply ROT13 encode/decode in the browser for quick CTF-style or legacy text tasks.
  • Caesar Cipher Tool — Encrypt or decrypt with a custom Caesar shift—educational and lightweight obfuscation.
  • Word Frequency Analyzer — Rank word counts in pasted text to spot repetition, SEO stuffing, or vocabulary patterns.
  • Email Extractor — Pull every valid email from messy text or HTML into a deduplicated list for outreach prep.
  • URL Extractor — Extract URLs from blobs of text or HTML for audits, archiving, and link inventories.

Frequently asked questions

What is an online find and replace tool?
It is a browser-based editor that searches your pasted text for a phrase or pattern and substitutes another string everywhere (or for each regex match). You avoid installing VS Code or Notepad++ for quick bulk edits to exports, configs, or long documents. This page runs entirely on your device.
Does find and replace run on my computer or on a server?
Processing happens locally in your browser with JavaScript. Pasted text and files you upload are read with the File API on your machine; nothing is sent to our servers for the search-and-replace step.
What is the difference between plain text and regex mode?
Plain text treats your find field as literal characters (parentheses, dots, and stars are not special). Regex mode uses JavaScript regular expression syntax so you can match patterns like digits, word boundaries, or optional groups. Invalid regex patterns show an error instead of changing your text.
How do I do a case-insensitive find and replace?
In plain text mode, turn off “Match case.” In regex mode, enable the “Ignore case (i)” flag or include i in your pattern flags. That way “Hello” and “hello” both match when you search for one of them.
Can I use capture groups in the replacement string?
Yes in regex mode. JavaScript replacement rules apply: $1 is the first capturing group, $& is the whole match, and $$ is a literal dollar sign. Test tricky patterns in our Regex tester under Developer Tools if you want a dedicated regex workspace.
Why does regex mode always use the global flag?
Without the global flag, String.replace in JavaScript only replaces the first match. This tool adds g so every match in the document is replaced, which matches how most bulk find-and-replace workflows behave.
Will newlines and Windows line endings break my search?
Your text keeps its original line breaks in the editor. In regex mode you can enable multiline (m) so ^ and $ match line starts and ends, or use \n in the pattern for explicit newlines. For normalizing endings first, use the whitespace remover or case converter workflows linked from the Text and String tools section.
How is this different from the duplicate line remover?
Duplicate line remover collapses repeated whole lines while preserving order of first appearances. Find and replace rewrites substrings or pattern matches inside lines—ideal for renaming variables, fixing typos, or reformatting tokens. Use both in sequence when cleaning large paste dumps.
What related tools should I use after find and replace?
Compare two versions with the text diff checker, count length changes with the word counter, dedupe lists with the duplicate line remover, and validate complex patterns with the regex tester. All live in the same Text and String or Developer sections on the home page.