---
title: "Text hash generator & comparison | Austin Greco"
description: "Generate SHA-256, SHA-384 or SHA-512 hashes from UTF-8 text and compare an expected hash. Free, private text hashing in your browser."
canonical: "https://austingreco.com/tools/hash-generator"
last_updated: "2026-10-23T01:59:26.000Z"
---

[Tools](https://austingreco.com/tools) · Text hash generator / comparison

# Text hash generator

Generate a SHA hash from text. Paste an expected hash to see whether it matches.

## How to generate and compare a text hash

1.  Choose **SHA-256**, the default, or select SHA-384 or SHA-512 to match the hash you are checking.
2.  Type or paste your source text. Its UTF-8 hexadecimal digest updates as you type, including for empty text.
3.  Use **Copy hash** to copy the digest. To compare, paste a hexadecimal value into **Expected hash**.

Expected hashes must contain exactly 64 characters for SHA-256, 96 for SHA-384, or 128 for SHA-512. Uppercase and lowercase hex compare equally. Spaces, line breaks, `0x` prefixes and labels are rejected in the expected hash.

## Exact text matters

The text in the editor is encoded as UTF-8 without trimming, Unicode normalization or added characters. A space, a trailing newline, or a visually similar Unicode character can change the digest. The browser text editor represents line breaks as LF (`\n`); use a file checksum tool when you need to hash original file bytes or CRLF line endings.

Try **Example** to hash `abc`. Its SHA-256 hash is `ba7816bf8f01cfea414140de5dae2223b00361a396177a9cb410ff61f20015ad`. Empty text has the SHA-256 hash `e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855`. Many command-line tools add a newline by default; that produces a different result.

The limit is 1 MiB (1,048,576 UTF-8 bytes), which may be fewer than 1,048,576 characters for Unicode text. Larger input and incomplete Unicode characters show an error instead of a partial hash. No text is silently truncated.

## Hashing, encryption and passwords

Hashing

Produces a fixed-length fingerprint. The same bytes and algorithm produce the same hash. A match says the two digest values agree; it does not prove who created the text or that it is safe.

Encryption

Protects data so someone with the right key can decrypt it. A hash has no decryption key and is not encryption. Predictable source text can still be guessed by hashing candidate values.

Password storage

This is not password hashing. Plain SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 are fast and unsuitable for storing passwords. Password storage needs a dedicated salted, costly password-hashing scheme.

This tool uses the browser's native [Web Crypto digest API](https://www.w3.org/TR/WebCryptoAPI/#SubtleCrypto-method-digest). SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 are part of the [Secure Hash Standard](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/180-4/upd1/final). It does not calculate keyed HMACs, hash files, or verify signatures.

## Privacy and related tools

Your source text and expected hash stay in this page's memory. The tool does not put input in analytics, logs, browser storage, URLs or network requests. Copy hash writes the digest to your clipboard. Loading the page still requests the site's files; see the [site privacy details](https://austingreco.com/privacy).

To encode text reversibly, use [Base64 encode / decode](https://austingreco.com/tools/base64-encode-decode). For token claims and local HS256 signature checks, use the [JWT explorer](https://austingreco.com/tools/jwt-explorer), or browse [all browser tools](https://austingreco.com/tools).

Source: [Text hash generator](https://austingreco.com/tools/hash-generator)