Free Online Tool

Hamming Distance

Calculate Hamming distance between strings.

How to Use Examples Related Tools

Hamming Distance Calculator

Calculate the number of differing positions between equal-length strings

Calculation Mode

String 1

String 2

Example Calculations

Click any example to try it

String 1: hello

String 2: hallo

Distance: 1 (one character difference)

String 1: karolin

String 2: kathrin

Distance: 3

String 1: 1011101

String 2: 1001001

Binary strings as text

How to Use Hamming Distance

Enter two strings (or two binary/hex values) of equal length.
The tool counts the positions where the two differ — that count is the Hamming distance.
For binary inputs it also shows the XOR, whose number of 1 bits equals the distance.
Copy the result. Everything is computed in your browser.

Hamming distance measures how many single-character (or single-bit) substitutions turn one string into the other. It underpins error-detecting and error-correcting codes.

Examples

Two words — input:

karolin vs kathrin

Output:

Positions 3, 5, and 6 differ (r/t, o/h, l/r).

Binary strings — input:

1011101 vs 1001001

Output:

The two strings differ in two bit positions.

Identical inputs — input:

cat vs cat

Output:

A distance of 0 means the inputs are identical.

Features

Privacy Focused

All processing happens in your browser. No data is sent to servers.

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