Hash Generator
Generate MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512 hashes from any text.
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How this hash generator works
Paste text and get its cryptographic hash (a fixed-length fingerprint) in one or more algorithms, computed locally using the browser's built-in Web Crypto API (crypto.subtle.digest). Your input text never leaves the browser to compute the hash.
MD5 and SHA-1 are broken for security — but still useful
Both MD5 and SHA-1 have known collision attacks, meaning an attacker can craft two different inputs that hash to the same value. That makes them unsafe for anything security-critical (digital signatures, certificate fingerprints), but they remain perfectly fine for non-adversarial uses like checking whether a downloaded file matches an expected checksum, or generating a quick cache key. SHA-256 and above don't have known practical collision attacks and are the safer default when security actually matters.
Don't use this for password storage
Hashing a password with SHA-256 (or any of these general-purpose hash functions) directly is not safe password storage, even though it's tempting since "it's already hashed." These algorithms are designed to be fast, which is exactly the wrong property for password hashing — it makes brute-force attacks cheap. Purpose-built password hashing functions like bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2 are deliberately slow and include salting by design; this tool is for checksums and general-purpose hashing, not credential storage.
Frequently asked questions
Is MD5 safe to use?
Not for security purposes — it's vulnerable to collision attacks. It's still fine for non-adversarial checksums, like verifying a file wasn't corrupted in transfer.
Is this safe for hashing passwords before storing them?
No. Use a dedicated password hashing algorithm like bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2 instead, which are intentionally slow and salted — general-purpose hashes like SHA-256 are too fast, making brute-force attacks cheaper.
What's the difference between hashing and encryption?
Hashing is one-way — there's no key to reverse it back to the original input. Encryption is two-way and reversible with the correct key. Hashes are for verifying integrity or storing irreversible fingerprints; encryption is for protecting data you need to read again later.