See which bytes changed between two files

Direct answer

What does Diff Anything show for binary files?

In Binary / Image mode, Diff Anything compares any two files byte by byte and shows them in a hex view: offsets, hex values, and printable characters in two panes that scroll together, with changed, inserted, and deleted ranges aligned so one inserted byte does not shift the rest of the file. Step through the ranges, jump with Go to offset, and read the selected bytes in the data inspector. Images get a pixel comparison in the same mode, and SVG files open in XML mode until you choose Compare rendered. The free plan lists the first 100 byte differences.

What you get

Are the files the same, and if not, where do they differ?

For executables, installers, libraries, and other non-text files, the useful question is usually whether two files are exactly the same. Binary / Image mode recognises identical files by their size and SHA-256 hash, and compares the others byte by byte.

When the files are byte-identical, no differences are listed. When they differ, the hex view shows where: two synchronized panes of offsets, hex values, and printable characters, with each changed, inserted, or deleted range marked and listed as a difference. Insertions and deletions are aligned, so one inserted byte does not make the rest of the file look changed.

Step through the ranges with F7 and F8, jump with Go to offset, and read the selected bytes in the data inspector. The view scrolls to any row of multi-gigabyte files. For files that contain other files, use the modes that open them: Archive for ZIP, 7z, RAR and TAR, and PDF / Office for documents.

Images

Images get a pixel comparison.

PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF, Photoshop, rendered SVG, HEIC, AVIF, camera RAW, and other images are compared pixel by pixel in the same mode, with side by side, overlay, swipe, blink, heatmap, and changed-pixel views. You get the changed-pixel count, colour similarity, error measurements, and the bounds of the changed area, up to 16 megapixels per image, and an image's Hex view compares its bytes.

HEIC, AVIF, and camera RAW are decoded by the operating system; on Windows they need the matching image extensions from the Microsoft Store, and an image no decoder can read is compared by its bytes. Animated images are compared one chosen frame at a time. An embedded ICC colour profile is reported, but it is not applied to the pixel comparison.

When it is used

Auto uses binary mode for non-text content.

Auto chooses Binary / Image for common image formats, executables, libraries and disk images such as .exe, .dll, .so, .dylib and .dmg. It also chooses it for any file with a NUL byte near the start.

On the free plan, binary comparison lists the first 100 byte differences, for files up to 5 MB each. Pro lists every difference and removes the 5 MB limit, which matters for most build artifacts.

Scripts

Check build artifacts from a script.

With Pro, run the CLI with --mode binary --format json, on Windows or, through the free command-line helper, on a Mac. Two identical files report zero differences. Otherwise the output lists each changed, inserted, or deleted range with its offsets, lengths, and first 16 bytes on each side. Add --exit-code to return 1 when the files differ, for example to check that two builds produced the same artifact.

For images, the JSON output contains the pixel measurements instead: changed pixels, similarity, mean and root-mean-square error, maximum channel delta, and changed bounds.

Best for

Where this workflow fits.

• Confirming whether build artifacts are byte-identical
• Reviewing image metadata before deeper visual comparison
• Comparing private binaries without a cloud upload

No accounts, cloud comparison service, analytics, or telemetry.

Relevant capabilities

What Diff Anything brings to the job.

Practical workflow

From setup to a reviewed result.

1. Open the two files

   Choose the two builds, installers, or other files. Auto opens non-text files in Binary / Image mode.

2. Read the result

   Check whether any differences are listed, then step through the changed byte ranges in the hex view.

3. Switch mode for containers

   Open archives in Archive mode and documents in PDF / Office mode to see which entries or pages changed.

4. Automate the check

   With Pro, run --mode binary with --exit-code in a script to catch unexpected differences.

Useful in practice

Direct answers

Questions about binary file compare tool.

Go deeper

Review cross-format spreadsheet values, release trees, documents, and visual assets with purpose-built navigation, safety checks, and rollback.

Related guides

Understand the workflow from another angle.