Hash Generator
Get the MD5, SHA-1 or SHA-2 digest of any text, computed on your device.
Output
Paste or type above to see the result here.
Your files stay on your device
This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you paste is processed on your device and is never sent to a server, so it is safe to use with tokens, keys and unpublished text.
Example
Example: why one sentence gives four different SHA-256 hashes
A colleague sends the SHA-256 of a sentence and yours does not match. Paste The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog with nothing after it, choose SHA-256 and press Generate hash. Then try it with a line break at the end, as echo adds, with a Windows line end, and with a full stop.
- The text is hashed as UTF-8 bytes: 43 characters, 43 bytes, nothing after the last letter.
- SHA-256 gives 64 hexadecimal characters, and 256 is shown as the bits under the result.
- One byte more anywhere gives a completely different hash, not a similar one.
| Input | SHA-256 | MD5 |
|---|---|---|
| …lazy dog | d7a8fbb307d7809469ca9abcb0082e4f8d5651e46d3cdb762d02d0bf37c9e592 | 9e107d9d372bb6826bd81d3542a419d6 |
| …lazy dog + line break (as echo adds) | c03905fcdab297513a620ec81ed46ca44ddb62d41cbbd83eb4a5a3592be26a69 | 37c4b87edffc5d198ff5a185cee7ee09 |
| …lazy dog + Windows line end (CR LF) | 22f54567ed79dcf2423e7202a02482ce1406e42152e158ba8e0f44c6bbc6eaf9 | f2789658fd0737100f4dd1fac58c08e9 |
| …lazy dog. (with a full stop) | ef537f25c895bfa782526529a9b63d97aa631564d5d789c2b765448c8635fb6c | e4d909c290d0fb1ca068ffaddf22cbd0 |
If the colleague’s value is c03905…6a69, their text ended with a line break: echo adds one, while echo -n and printf '%s' do not. Press Enter after the sentence here and the two match.
How it works
- Paste the text you want to hash. It is treated as UTF-8 bytes, so the result matches command-line tools like sha256sum or openssl dgst on the same UTF-8 file.
- Select the algorithm. SHA-256 is the default and the right choice for new work; MD5 and SHA-1 are provided for checking old checksums.
- The result appears as you type. The digest appears as lowercase hexadecimal.
- Compare it with the expected value. A single differing character means the input differs, even if it is only a trailing newline.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I use MD5 or SHA-256 to store passwords?
- No. Plain hashes are far too fast; an attacker can test billions of guesses per second on a GPU. Passwords need a slow, salted algorithm designed for the purpose such as bcrypt, scrypt or Argon2id. Use this tool for checksums and fingerprints, not for password storage.
- Why are MD5 and SHA-1 marked as legacy?
- Both have practical collision attacks: two different inputs can be crafted to produce the same hash. They are still fine for detecting accidental corruption, but they must not be used for signatures, certificates or anything where an attacker could choose the input.
- Why does my hash differ from the one produced by another tool?
- Almost always because the bytes differ: a trailing newline, Windows CRLF line endings, a UTF-8 byte order mark, or a different encoding such as Shift_JIS or UTF-16. Hashes are computed over bytes, not over what the text looks like.
- Can I hash a file instead of text?
- Not on this page: pasting a file’s contents into a text box changes its bytes. Use File checksum, which reads the file itself, gives its SHA-256, SHA-1, SHA-512 or MD5, and compares it with the value the publisher lists.
- Why does echo on the command line give a different hash?
- Because echo ends its output with a line break, so echo "text" | sha256sum hashes the text plus one more byte. Use echo -n or printf '%s' "text" instead, or add the line break here as well. A file saved on Windows adds two bytes (CR LF) at the end of every line.
- Is my text uploaded to compute the hash?
- No. SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 use the browser's Web Crypto API, and MD5 is a small in-page implementation. Nothing is transmitted, so you can hash secrets, tokens or personal data safely.
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