Hash Generator
MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 — all at once, click any to copy.
Text & dev tools
Any file up to 50 MB — checksums without uploading it anywhere.
Hashes are one-way fingerprints. MD5 and SHA-1 are broken for security (collisions found) — fine for checksums and file IDs, never for passwords. For storing passwords use SHA-256+ with salt, or better: bcrypt/argon2.
Which hash for what?
- MD5 — legacy checksums, file integrity, cache keys. Fast, 32 hex chars.
- SHA-1 — git commits, older TLS certs. Deprecated for security use.
- SHA-256 — the modern default: Bitcoin, TLS certs, package signatures.
- SHA-512 — longer variant for high-security contexts; not "more secure" for most uses.
- File checksums — verify a download wasn't corrupted: hash the file, compare with the publisher's value.
Hash Generator — FAQ
Why does the same text always give the same hash?
That's the point — a hash is a deterministic fingerprint. Same input, same output, forever. Change one character and the hash changes completely (the avalanche effect).
Can a hash be reversed back to the text?
No — hashing is one-way by design. You can't compute the input from the hash. What attackers do is try candidate inputs until one matches (brute force) — which is why weak passwords fall to rainbow tables even though the hash itself is unbreakable.
SHA-256 vs SHA-512 — which should I pick?
For almost everything, SHA-256. SHA-512 is only meaningfully better on 64-bit hardware processing very large data, and produces longer strings. Neither is "stronger" against brute force in any practical sense today.
Why is my SHA-256 different from another site's?
Almost always an input encoding difference — a trailing newline or space, or the other site hashed the bytes differently. This tool hashes exactly what's in the textarea (UTF-8), character for character.