Is This Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
Paste any Chinese text below and this free tool tells you instantly whether it is Simplified or Traditional — with a character-by-character breakdown, regional SEO targeting advice, and Japanese/Korean detection. No signup, works in your browser.
Detect the script of your Chinese text
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How this Chinese detector works
Paste any text in the box above and the detector scans it character by character (hanzi by hanzi) using two techniques in combination:
- Character reference sets — every character is checked against curated lists of Simplified-only, Traditional-only, and shared Chinese characters.
- Unicode range analysis — for anything outside those sets, the tool inspects the codepoint to identify Japanese Hiragana/Katakana, Korean Hangul, Bopomofo (Taiwan phonetic script), and other CJK characters (shared Chinese-derived characters used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writing).
You get a plain-language verdict (Definitely Simplified, Definitely Traditional, Mostly Simplified with some Traditional, Mixed script, or Not Chinese), a percentage breakdown of every character category, an estimated word count and reading time, and a color-coded character-by-character view so you can spot exactly which characters triggered the result. The tool also suggests which regional audience the text is best suited for — useful when deciding whether to target Baidu (Mainland China) or Google (Taiwan and Hong Kong).
Simplified vs Traditional Chinese — quick reference
| Simplified (简体字) | Traditional (繁體字) | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary regions | Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia | Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau |
| Character forms | Fewer strokes, simplified forms | Original, more complex forms |
| Example: "study" | 学 | 學 |
| Example: "dragon" | 龙 | 龍 |
| Search engine | Baidu | Google (in HK/TW) |
Why the script matters for SEO
If you are targeting Chinese-speaking audiences, script choice directly affects search visibility. Baidu — the dominant engine in Mainland China — expects Simplified Chinese and treats Traditional content as foreign. Google users in Taiwan and Hong Kong expect Traditional Chinese and Traditional content ranks better for those regions. Publishing the wrong script for your target region hurts rankings, click-through rate, and credibility with local readers.
This tool is built for online marketers, SEO specialists, translators, localization teams, and content reviewers who do not read Chinese themselves but need to verify what they are publishing, what they are receiving from vendors, or what competitors are using. If you need hands-on help with Chinese SEO, see our Baidu SEO service or our Chinese AI-SEO/GEO service.
Six Checks for Chinese Content You Can't Read Yourself
Knowing which script a text uses is the first check, not the last. If you publish Chinese content without reading Chinese, these are the points that decide whether it works for readers and for search engines.
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The script matches the market
Simplified for Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia; Traditional for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. That's what the detector above checks.
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The vocabulary matches the region
Converting the script doesn't localize the words. "Software" is 软件 in Mainland China but 軟體 in Taiwan; "information" is 信息 versus 資訊. Text converted from one market often reads as foreign in the other.
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It doesn't read like machine translation
Native readers notice unnatural phrasing immediately, and it costs trust in the brand behind it. Our English–Chinese localization benchmark →
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No restricted or sensitive terms
China's Advertising Law restricts absolute claims such as "best" (最佳) or "top level" (最高级), and platforms reject ads and posts that contain sensitive terms. Run a sensitivity check →
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Chinese punctuation, not Western
Chinese text uses full-width punctuation (，。：“”). Half-width commas and full stops in Chinese sentences are a typical sign of text that no native editor has seen. Fullwidth / halfwidth converter →
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Keywords people actually search for
A translated keyword is often not what Chinese users type into Baidu. Keyword research has to happen in Chinese, for the target region. How we do Baidu SEO →
Native Chinese editors review every piece of content in every Jademond workflow — from website copy to ads and social posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. The tool is completely free to use with no sign-up, registration, or account required. Paste any Chinese text and get an instant script detection, character breakdown, and regional SEO targeting suggestion.
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Yes. The tool uses Unicode range analysis to identify Hiragana, Katakana, and Hangul characters. If you paste Japanese text (with kana) or Korean text (with Hangul), the detector will tell you it is not Chinese. Note that Japanese also uses kanji (Chinese-origin characters), so a kanji-only sentence can look Chinese — the presence of kana is what confirms it is Japanese.
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Simplified Chinese (简体字) uses fewer strokes and is the standard script in Mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Traditional Chinese (繁體字) preserves the original character forms and is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Many characters are identical in both scripts; the tool highlights the distinguishing ones character by character.
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No. Conversion swaps character forms, but Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong also differ in vocabulary and phrasing — for example, "software" is 软件 in Mainland China and 軟體 in Taiwan, and "information" is 信息 versus 資訊. Converted text can be correct character by character and still read as foreign to the target audience. Localizing it takes a native editor for the target region.
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A mixed script result means the text contains both Simplified-only and Traditional-only characters in significant amounts. This is usually a localization issue caused by copy-pasting from different sources or by inconsistent machine translation. Search engines like Baidu and Google may treat inconsistent script as low-quality or foreign content, so it is best to normalize the text to one script before publishing.
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Every character in your text is color-coded by category: green for Simplified-only, purple for Traditional-only, gray for shared Chinese characters, pink for Japanese kana, teal for Korean Hangul, and orange for Bopomofo. This lets you instantly see exactly which characters are causing a mixed-script or non-Chinese verdict — useful when reviewing translations, spotting stray characters copied from another source, or debugging a localization file.
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Your text is sent to our server for analysis but is not logged, stored, or shared. After the response is returned, the input is discarded. The tool also does not require any account, cookie, or personal information to work.
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CJK characters are Chinese-derived ideographic characters used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writing systems. Unicode groups these characters into shared CJK ranges because many Han characters originated from the same historical script, even though their usage and meanings can differ across languages. Detecting CJK characters helps identify East Asian text and distinguish it from other scripts such as Hiragana, Katakana, Hangul, or Bopomofo.
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For any text containing distinguishing characters, detection is essentially deterministic — the tool checks each character against reference sets of Simplified-only and Traditional-only forms. If a text contains only characters that are identical in both scripts (which happens with very short texts or texts made mostly of shared characters), the tool reports that it cannot determine which script was intended and suggests trying a longer sample.
Built by Jademond Digital, a Chinese digital marketing agency founded in Guangzhou in 2012. About us →