About this tool
Computes cryptographic hashes (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512) from text or any file. Useful for verifying download integrity, comparing files without opening them, generating stable identifiers from content, or checking a hash given on a download page.
How to use
- Pick the hash algorithm (MD5, SHA-256, etc.).
- Paste text or upload a file.
- The hash appears automatically in hexadecimal format.
- Copy it to compare or save.
Frequently asked questions
- Which hash algorithm should I use?
- For casual integrity verification (downloads, comparisons), SHA-256 is the modern standard. MD5 and SHA-1 are considered broken for security uses and should be avoided in cryptography, but they remain useful for detecting non-malicious errors. SHA-512 is slower but more secure for sensitive uses.
- Can I recover the original text from a hash?
- No. Hashes are one-way functions, designed to be computationally impractical to reverse. The only way to "discover" the text that produced a hash is to try all possibilities (brute force) or consult tables of pre-computed hashes. That's why hashes serve as fingerprints, not as ciphers.
- Can two files have the same hash?
- In theory yes (it's called a collision), in practice it's astronomically unlikely for SHA-256 or higher. For MD5 and SHA-1, attacks are known that can produce collisions artificially, which is why they're obsolete for security uses.