Hash Generator
Generate MD5 and SHA-256 hashes from text
Generates MD5 and SHA-256 hashes of any text you type, both updating live as you type with no button to click.
How it works
SHA-256 uses the browser's native Web Crypto API (crypto.subtle.digest); MD5 isn't available there since it's considered cryptographically broken for security purposes, so a small dedicated library handles that one instead. Both hashes recompute automatically as you type, encoded as lowercase hexadecimal.
Frequently asked questions
Why offer MD5 if it's considered broken?
MD5 is broken for security purposes (an attacker can craft collisions), but it's still widely used for non-security purposes like checksums and matching against existing MD5 values you may already have — hence including it here alongside SHA-256, which remains secure.
Should I use MD5 or SHA-256 for something security-sensitive, like a password?
Neither — hashing plain text once like this is not how passwords should be stored (that needs a slow, salted algorithm like bcrypt or Argon2, applied server-side). Use these hashes for checksums and identifiers, not credential storage.
Does it hash files, or only text?
Only text you type or paste — there's no file upload here, just a text box that gets hashed directly.
Why did the hash update a moment after I stopped typing?
SHA-256 hashing is asynchronous in the browser, so there's a brief delay while it computes — if you keep typing before it finishes, the in-progress result for the older text is discarded so it can't overwrite the hash for what you've typed since.
Is my text sent anywhere to compute the hash?
No — both hashes are computed entirely in your browser using built-in and small local libraries. Nothing is uploaded.