MD5 Hash Generator
Generate an MD5 checksum of text or a file. Fast and universal, but broken for security — use SHA-256 for anything that matters.
Input
MD5
Enter something above to see the result.
What MD5 is still good for
MD5 turns any input into a 128-bit fingerprint, written as 32 hexadecimal characters. It is fast, deterministic and implemented everywhere, which is why it survives as a checksum for downloads, an ETag for HTTP caching and a key for deduplication.
What it is no longer good for is anything an attacker can influence. Collisions — two different inputs with the same hash — can be produced on a laptop in seconds, so MD5 cannot prove that a file was not tampered with, and it must never be used to store passwords.
Verifying a download
- Choose the File tab and select the downloaded file.
- Compare the hash shown here with the one published by the source.
- If they differ, the file is corrupt or has been altered — do not run it.
The file is read with the FileReader API and hashed in the page. It is never uploaded, which also means the tool works on files you would not be allowed to send anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Can an MD5 hash be reversed?
Not directly — hashing discards information. But short or common inputs can be found instantly in a rainbow table, so an MD5 of a password offers essentially no protection.
Why does my hash differ from another tool?
Almost always a difference in the input: a trailing newline, different line endings (CRLF vs LF) or a different character encoding all produce a completely different hash.
What should I use instead for security?
SHA-256 for integrity and signatures; bcrypt, scrypt or Argon2 for passwords. Never a bare fast hash for passwords, whatever the algorithm.