Why does adding a single space change the whole hash?

That is the property the algorithm is designed around, called the avalanche effect: changing one bit of input flips roughly half the output bits. It is what makes a hash useful for detecting corruption — any change at all, however small, produces a completely different value.

Is SHA-256 safe to store passwords with?

Not on its own. SHA-256 is deliberately fast, which is exactly wrong for passwords — a modern GPU tries billions of guesses a second against it. Password storage needs a slow, salted algorithm built for the job: bcrypt, scrypt or Argon2. SHA-256 is the right tool for checksums, signatures and content addressing.

Will this match the hash my server or shasum produces?

Yes, provided the input matches byte for byte. The usual mismatch is an invisible trailing newline: `echo text | shasum -a 256` hashes the newline too, while `echo -n text | shasum -a 256` does not. This page hashes exactly the characters in the box, with no newline added.

SHA256 Generator

Paste text and get its SHA-256 hash straight away. SHA-256 is the hash behind TLS certificates, Git object names, Bitcoin and almost every checksum published next to a download — 256 bits written as 64 hexadecimal characters. Because the hashing happens in this page rather than on a server, you can hash a config value or an API response without it ever leaving the machine you're sitting at.

Your text

Hash each line separately

Off, the whole box is hashed as one string. On, you get one hash per line.

Uppercase output

Show the input beside each hash

Only applies when hashing line by line.

Result

Nothing is uploaded — this tool runs inside your browser, so your files never leave your device.

Help us improve

Why use this tool

Hashes the whole box, or every line separately for building a lookup table
Optional uppercase output, for systems that print hashes in capitals
Shows the original line beside each hash when you need to check your work
Runs entirely in your browser — the text is never uploaded

How it works

1Paste or type the text you want to hash.
2Turn on line-by-line hashing if you pasted a list rather than one value.
3Copy the hash, or download the whole set as a text file.

SHA256 Generator — frequently asked questions

No, and not because the tool won't do it — because there is nothing to decrypt. Hashing throws information away: every input, however long, produces the same 64 characters, so the original cannot be recovered. Sites advertising a “SHA-256 decrypter” are running a dictionary of pre-computed common inputs, which only ever works on short, guessable text.

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