diff --git a/Doc/library/collections.rst b/Doc/library/collections.rst
index fdd31799bd90d3..52178d6c526a40 100644
--- a/Doc/library/collections.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/collections.rst
@@ -367,9 +367,11 @@ Several mathematical operations are provided for combining :class:`Counter`
 objects to produce multisets (counters that have counts greater than zero).
 Addition and subtraction combine counters by adding or subtracting the counts
 of corresponding elements.  Intersection and union return the minimum and
-maximum of corresponding counts.  Equality and inclusion compare
-corresponding counts.  Each operation can accept inputs with signed
-counts, but the output will exclude results with counts of zero or less.
+maximum of corresponding counts.  Symmetric difference returns the difference
+between the maximum and minimum of the corresponding counts. Equality and
+inclusion compare corresponding counts.  Each operation can accept inputs
+with signed counts, but the output will exclude results with counts of zero
+or below.
 
 .. doctest::
 
@@ -383,6 +385,8 @@ counts, but the output will exclude results with counts of zero or less.
     Counter({'a': 1, 'b': 1})
     >>> c | d                       # union:  max(c[x], d[x])
     Counter({'a': 3, 'b': 2})
+    >>> c ^ d                       # max(c[x], d[x]) - min(c[x], d[x])
+    Counter({'a': 2, 'b': 1})
     >>> c == d                      # equality:  c[x] == d[x]
     False
     >>> c <= d                      # inclusion:  c[x] <= d[x]
@@ -400,6 +404,9 @@ or subtracting from an empty counter.
 .. versionadded:: 3.3
     Added support for unary plus, unary minus, and in-place multiset operations.
 
+.. versionadded:: next
+    Added support for the symmetric difference multiset operation, ``c ^ d``.
+
 .. note::
 
     Counters were primarily designed to work with positive integers to represent
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst
index d5d387d9a0aaa7..72c55eabb54da4 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst
@@ -294,6 +294,14 @@ New modules
 Improved modules
 ================
 
+collections
+-----------
+
+* Added :meth:`!collections.Counter.__xor__` and
+  :meth:`!collections.Counter.__ixor__` to compute the symmetric difference
+  between :class:`~collections.Counter` objects.
+  (Contributed by Raymond Hettinger in :gh:`138682`.)
+
 collections.abc
 ---------------
 
diff --git a/Lib/collections/__init__.py b/Lib/collections/__init__.py
index b8653f40a942f0..25ac4d1d524bc2 100644
--- a/Lib/collections/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/collections/__init__.py
@@ -796,6 +796,7 @@ def __repr__(self):
     #         set(cp - cq) == sp - sq
     #         set(cp | cq) == sp | sq
     #         set(cp & cq) == sp & sq
+    #         set(cp ^ cq) == sp ^ sq
 
     def __eq__(self, other):
         'True if all counts agree. Missing counts are treated as zero.'
@@ -908,6 +909,33 @@ def __and__(self, other):
                 result[elem] = newcount
         return result
 
+    def __xor__(self, other):
+        '''Symmetric difference. Absolute value of count differences.
+
+        The symmetric difference p ^ q is equivalent to:
+
+            (p - q) | (q - p).
+
+        For each element, symmetric difference gives the same result as:
+
+            max(p[elem], q[elem]) - min(p[elem], q[elem])
+
+        >>> Counter(a=5, b=3, c=2, d=2) ^ Counter(a=1, b=3, c=5, e=1)
+        Counter({'a': 4, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1})
+
+        '''
+        if not isinstance(other, Counter):
+            return NotImplemented
+        result = Counter()
+        for elem, count in self.items():
+            newcount = abs(count - other[elem])
+            if newcount:
+                result[elem] = newcount
+        for elem, count in other.items():
+            if elem not in self and count:
+                result[elem] = abs(count)
+        return result
+
     def __pos__(self):
         'Adds an empty counter, effectively stripping negative and zero counts'
         result = Counter()
@@ -990,6 +1018,22 @@ def __iand__(self, other):
                 self[elem] = other_count
         return self._keep_positive()
 
+    def __ixor__(self, other):
+        '''Inplace symmetric difference. Absolute value of count differences.
+
+        >>> c = Counter(a=5, b=3, c=2, d=2)
+        >>> c ^= Counter(a=1, b=3, c=5, e=1)
+        >>> c
+        Counter({'a': 4, 'c': 3, 'd': 2, 'e': 1})
+
+        '''
+        for elem, count in self.items():
+            self[elem] = abs(count - other[elem])
+        for elem, count in other.items():
+            if elem not in self:
+                self[elem] = abs(count)
+        return self._keep_positive()
+
 
 ########################################################################
 ###  ChainMap
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_collections.py b/Lib/test/test_collections.py
index 76995c52b1a3c2..22595239252814 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_collections.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_collections.py
@@ -2179,6 +2179,7 @@ def correctly_ordered(seq):
         self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p - q))
         self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p | q))
         self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p & q))
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p ^ q))
 
         p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
         p += q
@@ -2196,6 +2197,10 @@ def correctly_ordered(seq):
         p &= q
         self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
 
+        p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
+        p ^= q
+        self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
+
         p, q = Counter(ps), Counter(qs)
         p.update(q)
         self.assertTrue(correctly_ordered(p))
@@ -2278,6 +2283,7 @@ def test_multiset_operations(self):
                 (Counter.__sub__, lambda x, y: max(0, x-y)),
                 (Counter.__or__, lambda x, y: max(0,x,y)),
                 (Counter.__and__, lambda x, y: max(0, min(x,y))),
+                (Counter.__xor__, lambda x, y: max(0, max(x,y) - min(x,y))),
             ]:
                 result = counterop(p, q)
                 for x in elements:
@@ -2295,6 +2301,7 @@ def test_multiset_operations(self):
                 (Counter.__sub__, set.__sub__),
                 (Counter.__or__, set.__or__),
                 (Counter.__and__, set.__and__),
+                (Counter.__xor__, set.__xor__),
             ]:
                 counter_result = counterop(p, q)
                 set_result = setop(set(p.elements()), set(q.elements()))
@@ -2313,6 +2320,7 @@ def test_inplace_operations(self):
                 (Counter.__isub__, Counter.__sub__),
                 (Counter.__ior__, Counter.__or__),
                 (Counter.__iand__, Counter.__and__),
+                (Counter.__ixor__, Counter.__xor__),
             ]:
                 c = p.copy()
                 c_id = id(c)
@@ -2388,6 +2396,7 @@ def test_multiset_operations_equivalent_to_set_operations(self):
             self.assertEqual(set(cp - cq), sp - sq)
             self.assertEqual(set(cp | cq), sp | sq)
             self.assertEqual(set(cp & cq), sp & sq)
+            self.assertEqual(set(cp ^ cq), sp ^ sq)
             self.assertEqual(cp == cq, sp == sq)
             self.assertEqual(cp != cq, sp != sq)
             self.assertEqual(cp <= cq, sp <= sq)
@@ -2415,6 +2424,40 @@ def test_gt(self):
         self.assertTrue(Counter(a=3, b=2, c=0) > Counter('aab'))
         self.assertFalse(Counter(a=2, b=1, c=0) > Counter('aab'))
 
+    def test_symmetric_difference(self):
+        population = (-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4)
+
+        for a, b1, b2, c in product(population, repeat=4):
+            p = Counter(a=a, b=b1)
+            q = Counter(b=b2, c=c)
+            r = p ^ q
+
+            # Elementwise invariants
+            for k in ('a', 'b', 'c'):
+                self.assertEqual(r[k], max(p[k], q[k]) - min(p[k], q[k]))
+                self.assertEqual(r[k], abs(p[k] - q[k]))
+
+            # Invariant for all positive, negative, and zero counts
+            self.assertEqual(r, (p - q) | (q - p))
+
+            # Invariant for non-negative counts
+            if a >= 0 and b1 >= 0 and b2 >= 0 and c >= 0:
+                self.assertEqual(r, (p | q) - (p & q))
+
+            # Zeros and negatives eliminated
+            self.assertTrue(all(value > 0 for value in r.values()))
+
+            # Output preserves input order:  p first and then q
+            keys = list(p) + list(q)
+            indices = [keys.index(k) for k in r]
+            self.assertEqual(indices, sorted(indices))
+
+            # Inplace operation matches binary operation
+            pp = Counter(p)
+            qq = Counter(q)
+            pp ^= qq
+            self.assertEqual(pp, r)
+
 
 def load_tests(loader, tests, pattern):
     tests.addTest(doctest.DocTestSuite(collections))
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-10-13-32-25.gh-issue-138682.iExqx1.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-10-13-32-25.gh-issue-138682.iExqx1.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..fe6bdcd894be71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-10-13-32-25.gh-issue-138682.iExqx1.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Added symmetric difference support to :class:`collections.Counter` objects.