# Find and Replace Text

> Replace text across a whole document with plain matching or full regular expressions.

To find and replace text, paste your document above, enter what to search for and what to replace it with. Enable regular expressions for pattern matching with capture groups referenced as $1 and $2, or leave it off for literal matching where special characters are escaped automatically.

**URL:** https://convertto.tech/t/find-and-replace
**Category:** Text Tools (https://convertto.tech/c/text-tools)
**Privacy:** Runs entirely in the browser; no upload
**Cost:** Free, no sign-up
**Last updated:** 2026-08-01

## Key facts

- **Privacy:** Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded
- **Cost:** Free, unlimited, no sign-up

## How to use

1. Enter or paste your text.
2. Enter or paste your find.
3. Enter or paste your replace with.
4. Turn "Regular expression" on or off as needed.
5. Turn "Case sensitive" on or off as needed.
6. The result appears immediately — copy or download it.

## FAQ

### When should I use regex rather than plain text?

When the thing you are matching varies — any number, any date, any word ending in a suffix. For a fixed string, plain replacement is faster and cannot surprise you with an unintended match.

### What do $1 and $2 mean in the replacement?

They insert whatever the corresponding capture group matched. If the pattern is (\w+)@(\w+), then "$2 at $1" swaps the two halves around. It is how you rearrange text rather than just substituting it.

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