Hash Generator

About this tool

Calculate modern text digests for development, fixtures, protocol checks, and reproducible comparisons without uploading the input.

Hash Generator turns any pasted text into a fixed-length digest using the browser's built-in Web Crypto API. It always computes SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 side by side, and you can show each digest as lowercase hexadecimal or standard Base64 with a single switch. MD5 and SHA-1 are available too, but only behind a separate checkbox and marked with a Legacy badge, because both have broken collision resistance and should not be used for new security work. The typical job is matching a value you see in an API response, a test fixture, a log line, or a protocol example, and confirming that your text produces exactly the same digest. Each row has its own copy button, and there is a copy-all control for the whole result set.

• Uses Web Crypto for SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512.
• Switches between HEX and Base64 output with individual copy controls.
• Keeps collision-broken MD5 and SHA-1 behind an explicit Legacy option.

How to use Hash Generator

Type or paste the text into the input box. Results appear automatically as you type, so there is no separate run button. Use the Output encoding control to switch between Hex and Base64; the change applies to every row at once. If you need MD5 or SHA-1 for a compatibility check, turn on Include legacy MD5 and SHA-1, and those two rows will appear below the SHA-2 digests with a warning background. Hashing an empty string is off by default; enable the empty-string option when you specifically need the digest of zero bytes. Click the copy icon beside any row to copy that digest alone, or use the copy-all button in the results header to copy every algorithm and value together. The clear button resets the input.

When this tool is useful

• A backend developer comparing a SHA-256 value from an API signature example against the exact request body they are sending.
• A QA engineer writing test fixtures who needs the SHA-512 of a known string in Base64 rather than hex.
• Someone auditing an old configuration file that stores MD5 values and needs to reproduce them for a migration plan.
• A student learning how hash functions behave by watching every digest change when a single character is edited.
• A support engineer confirming that two copies of a pasted token or identifier are byte-for-byte identical.

Practical tips

• The tool encodes your text as UTF-8 before hashing. If the other system uses UTF-16 or Latin-1, the digests will not match even when the characters look identical.
• Trailing newlines matter. Many command-line tools hash a line that ends in a newline, so a mismatch with echo output is often just that one byte.
• Base64 digests are shorter than hex for the same algorithm; SHA-256 is 44 Base64 characters versus 64 hex characters. Match whatever the receiving system expects.
• Use the legacy rows only to reproduce values a system already stores. Do not design a new checksum, signature, or password scheme around MD5 or SHA-1.
• This tool hashes text only. For a downloaded installer or archive, use a file checksum tool so the raw bytes are hashed instead of a text rendering.

Examples you can test

Load an example, compare the result with the expected output, then replace it with your own input.

hello world (hex output selected)

b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe37a5380ee9088f7ace2efcde9

user@example.com with Include legacy MD5 and SHA-1 turned on

An MD5 row and a SHA-1 row appear under the SHA-2 rows, each tagged Legacy

Validation checklist

• Confirm the encoding toggle matches the format the other system expects, hex or Base64.
• Check for a trailing newline or space when a digest is off by one comparison.
• Make sure the algorithm names line up; SHA-384 and SHA-512 are easy to confuse in documentation.
• Treat MD5 and SHA-1 rows as compatibility values, never as proof of integrity.
• Record the algorithm alongside any digest you save so it can be reproduced later.