Voyant Tools
Browser-based reading environment: paste in texts and get word frequencies, trends, keywords in context and visualisations. A common first step into text analysis.
At a glance
- Maker
- Stéfan Sinclair and Geoffrey Rockwell
- Released
- c. 2003
- Licence
- Open source (GPL-3)
- Cost
- Free
- Runs
- Web browser; local server for private texts
- Skill
- No code
Historian’s notes
Where your sources go Corpora on the public site can be opened by anyone with the link. Use the local version for sensitive material.
How it’s been tested Reviewed in Language Learning & Technology (2021); tested on historical Japanese texts (Digital Orientalist, 2021).
Known problems on historical sources Word splitting struggles with historical and non-English scripts. Frequency is only a rough proxy for meaning.
Used in research3
- Palabras de fidelidad: Bishop González del Campillo’s letters · Maximiliano Abner Alarcón Martínez (Univ. Veracruzana), 2026
- The repression of banditry in Andalusia · Julián Spinelli (Universidad de Buenos Aires), 2023
- Textile making in the Lienü zhuan · Lu Wang (Western University), 2021
Used to build corpora0
None recorded yet.
Tested in0
No published evaluations found yet.
Nobody has said they’re using it in 2026 yet. “I’m using this now” asks you to sign in with ORCID. One count per person per year; it adds to Trending, and names are never shown.