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MD5 hash generator

The MD5 checksum of text or a file, ready to check against the one published with a download.

Runs on your device, nothing is uploaded

Hashes update as you type.

Your text

Hashes

Working out the hashes…

Paste the hash you expect. It can be hex, Base64, or a whole line from sha256sum or md5.

Do not use these to store passwords

MD5 and SHA-1 are broken for security: different inputs with the same hash can be made on purpose. All five algorithms here are also built to be fast, which is exactly wrong for passwords, because it lets an attacker try billions of guesses a second. Store passwords with a slow, salted function such as Argon2, scrypt or bcrypt. Use SHA-256 or SHA-512 for checksums and fingerprints.

At a glance

Digest
128 bits, shown as 32 hex characters or as 24 characters of Base64.
Input
Text, hashed as UTF-8, or any file of any size.
Good for
Checking that a download or a copy matches a published checksum, cache keys, and finding duplicate files you trust.
Not good for
Passwords, signatures, certificates, or anything an attacker could tamper with.
Compare
Paste the MD5 you were given and see Match or No match. A line from md5sum works too.
Other hashes
SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 are one tap away on the same page.
Privacy
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

How to do it

  1. 1

    Add your text or file

    Switch between Text and File. Text is hashed exactly as typed, with no newline added.

  2. 2

    Read the MD5 line

    The MD5 value is shown first. Choose hex or Base64 with the buttons in the top corner of the Hashes box.

  3. 3

    Compare with the published value

    Paste the checksum from the download page into Compare with a hash. A green Match means the file is identical to the one it was made from.

What MD5 is, and why it is still around

MD5 was designed by Ronald Rivest in 1991 and described in RFC 1321. It turns any input into a 128-bit value, which is usually written as 32 hexadecimal characters. It is fast and available everywhere, and that is why it survives in file listings, package mirrors and old systems.

Researchers found ways to make two different inputs with the same MD5 in 2004, and in 2008 a team used the weakness to create a fake certificate authority certificate. Since then MD5 has been unsuitable for anything where someone might try to fool you on purpose.

Where MD5 is still fine, and where it is not

  • Fine: noticing that a file was damaged or cut short in transit, because accidental damage does not produce collisions.
  • Fine: cache keys, change detection and finding duplicates inside data you control.
  • Not fine: digital signatures, certificates, or proving a file was not replaced, because an attacker can craft a file with a chosen MD5.
  • Not fine: password storage. MD5 is far too fast, and a leaked list of MD5 passwords can be cracked at billions of guesses a second.

If you have a choice, publish and check SHA-256 as well. This page calculates both at once.

Getting an MD5 checksum on your own computer

To cross-check a result, these commands print the same value: md5sum file on Linux, md5 file on macOS, and Get-FileHash file -Algorithm MD5 in Windows PowerShell (or certutil -hashfile file MD5 in a Command Prompt).

Two values worth knowing when you test a tool: the MD5 of empty input is d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e, and the MD5 of the three letters abc is 900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72. If you leave the text box empty here, you will see the first one.

Questions people ask

Is MD5 encryption?

No. Encryption can be undone with a key. MD5 is a one-way hash: it makes a fixed-size fingerprint and the original cannot be calculated back from it.

Can an MD5 hash be decrypted?

Not by calculation. Sites that appear to decrypt MD5 look the hash up in huge tables of known inputs, which works for common words and short passwords but not for arbitrary data.

What does an MD5 hash look like?

It is 32 hexadecimal characters, for example 900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72 for the text abc. In Base64 the same value is 24 characters long.

Why is MD5 called insecure?

Because collisions can be created on purpose. Two different files can be made to share one MD5, so a matching MD5 does not prove a file is the one you expect when someone is trying to trick you.

Why is the MD5 of an empty file always the same?

A hash only depends on the bytes it is given. An empty file or empty text has no bytes, so every correct MD5 tool returns d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e for it.

Is my file uploaded to calculate the MD5?

No. The file is read by your browser and hashed on your device. Nothing is sent to a server.

Guides that help

All Data and developer guides →

Data and developer

The download page prints a long string of letters next to the button. Here is how to check it in a minute

5 min readRead

Data and developer

Length beats cleverness: how long a password should be, and the arithmetic that proves it

6 min readRead

Data and developer

Base64 looks like encryption and is not. What it does, why it exists and why your decode fails

6 min readRead

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