The inclusion of organic anions by the water-soluble tetracationic calix[4]arene TAC4 has been studied at neutral pH by H-1 NMR and isothermal titration calorimetry. The aromatic anions are better included than their aliphatic analogues. The Delta H degrees and Delta S degrees values show that the inclusion processes are mostly enthalpically driven and entropically unfavoured; they also show that an enthalpy-entropy compensation balances the gain in one contribution against a corresponding loss in the other. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.