It's or its?
it's is a contraction meaning “Contraction of it + is”; its is a determiner meaning “Belonging to it”. They sound the same (/ɪts/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) it's is about 1.5 times as common as its.
What is the difference between it's and its?
| it's | its | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | contraction | determiner, pronoun, noun |
| Meaning | Belonging to it The one (or ones) belonging to it | |
| Example | it’s too expensive; it’s coming right for us!; it's a free country | That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year… |
| Forms | i's, its, it'sa, 't's | it's |
| Pronunciation | /ɪts/ | /ɪts/ /ɪʔ.s/ |
| In writing | 2,138 times per million words | 1,380 times per million words |
Sources: it's and its in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of it's and its
it's
- 1
Contraction of it + is
it’s too expensive; it’s coming right for us!; it's a free country
- 2
Contraction of it + has
It’s been a long time since I’ve had cheesecake
- 3
proscribedContraction of it + was
When I was a kid, it's the thought that counted but, now, it's all about the Benjamins
its
- 1
Belonging to it
That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. (originally "of…
- 2
The one (or ones) belonging to it
… both Houses have resolved to rob the North of a good friend of its and yours
- 3
Initialism of issue tracking system
- 4
Initialism of intelligent transportation system
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, it's or its?
it's appears 2,138 times per million words; its 1,380 times per million words.
it's 2,138 times per million wordsits 1,380 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search it's vs its?
“it's vs its” is searched about 49,500 times a month on Google and 850 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“its vs it's”, “it's or its”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.