In the video below we show how you can easily compare contracts using Emma Projects.

In this article, and the linked articles below, you'll find more detail on how to set up and run a contract comparison.

Comparing contracts by hand — scrolling between tabs, marking up printouts, or relying on memory to spot a changed clause — is slow and error-prone, especially once you are past two or three documents. Emma's contract comparison automates that process: point it at a set of documents and a reference, and it surfaces exactly where and how each document deviates, down to the sentence.

Compare multiple agreements

Compare large numbers of similar agreements — such as lease agreements, permits, financing documents, or commercial contracts. Emma identifies recurring clauses, deviations, and potential risks across the document set, making it easier to detect inconsistencies and prioritise further review.

Review standard contracts against your templates

Review standard-form agreements such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), and Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) against your preferred templates. Emma highlights amendments and, through its reference heatmap, shows which clauses are amended most frequently — helping you review agreements more efficiently and continuously improve your own standard documentation.

Compare agreement versions

Compare multiple versions of the same agreement to understand how contractual rights and obligations have evolved over time — for example, analysing successive versions of a shareholders' agreement to identify which rights were introduced during each investment round and how the agreement developed throughout the transaction.

Compare reference documents against multiple related agreements

Compare a reference document against a set of related agreements to assess consistency and compliance. Typical examples include:

Compliance reviews

Review an entire contract portfolio against new legislation, regulatory requirements, or internal policies — for example by setting the relevant requirement as the reference document, or extracting the relevant provisions as key terms across the portfolio. This helps identify agreements that require updating or amendment, making large-scale compliance exercises faster and more consistent.

Comparing contracts that don't share a common template

When documents come from different sources and can't be compared line-by-line as text (for example, agreements drafted by different counterparties or law firms), use key terms instead — Emma extracts a specific data point (such as salary, notice period, or governing law) from every document and lets you compare those values side by side, even when the underlying wording is completely different.

For due diligence-specific comparison workflows (buy-side, sell-side, and investment due diligence), see Contract analysis.

From the Emma homepage, click New Project. Give it a name (for example "Compare consulting agreements") and choose the output language you want Emma to use. Since a plain comparison does not require a specific set of checks or key terms, you can skip selecting a playbook — click Continue to create the project.

→ Projects overview · Language support

Drag and drop the documents you want to compare directly into Emma, or use the Upload button in the Matrix toolbar. Emma immediately starts processing each file — extracting basic information such as the date, a summary, and the expected number of signatures — which appears in the Matrix as soon as it's ready.

→ Project integrations and files

This is the quickest way to compare documents that come from the same base template. In the Matrix, open the Key terms tab and click Compare key terms. Pick your reference document — either the original template, or a document you have already reviewed manually and want everything else measured against. Click Run Comparison.

A reference document does not need to be the "original" — it can be any file you trust and want to treat as the baseline for the rest.

Once the comparison finishes, a Show text comparison button appears. Click it to see, in the overview, how many changes Emma found in each document — shown in shades of colour so you can spot the most heavily amended documents at a glance. Click through to see exactly what changed and in which document.

→ Comparing key terms · Document viewer overview

If you want to see more than two documents side by side, switch to Table view. This gives you an inline comparison across every document of the currently selected document type at once — Emma supports hundreds of documents per type, so you can compare a whole portfolio in a single click. (If your project has multiple document types, switch document type in the sidebar and re-run the comparison to cover those documents too.) Documents with no changes are left blank; documents with changes show the inline differences directly in the grid.

Click Export to download the comparison to an Excel file. You can choose to export the full document text or only the changed passages for selected files — useful for sharing findings with the deal team or a client without giving them access to Emma.

If your documents don't share a common template — for example contracts drafted by different counterparties — you can't rely on a line-by-line text comparison. Instead, add key terms for the specific data points you want to compare (for example "Salary" as a currency amount). Emma extracts that value from every document and shows the comparison directly in the Key terms table, so you can compare terms even when the surrounding wording is completely different.

→ Key terms