Hash Identifier — What Type of Hash Is This?

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Hash Identifier — what kind of hash is this?

runs in your browser

⌃⏎ run · ⎋ clear · / focus input

Hash digest

Identified as

send output to

no matches

Result appears here as you type

runs in your browser · nothing uploaded

Hash Identifier Online

Updated 2026-08-01

Paste a hash and this tells you what produced it — MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512, bcrypt, Argon2 and more — by reading its length, character set and any format prefix. It understands the sha256: form used for Docker and OCI image digests, and the $2y$ / $argon2id$ modular-crypt formats that password hashes use.

It will not reverse a hash, because a hash cannot be reversed: the input is not stored in the output. What it does is answer the question you usually actually have when a bare digest turns up in a lockfile, a CI log or a database column — what is this, and where did it come from? Where a length is genuinely ambiguous, every plausible algorithm is listed rather than guessing one.

// how to use

1 Paste the hash — a bare digest, or one with an `algo:` prefix like `sha256:8cbdea5f…`.
2 The identifier reads its length and format and names the algorithm that produced it.
3 Where a length is ambiguous (32 hex is MD5, NTLM or MD4), every plausible candidate is listed.

// examples

A Docker image digest

Input

sha256:8cbdea5f3e3073f6952af2b00fa7447a92cf67b628682a72729641eb7b6a1ec3

Output

SHA-256 — 64 hex characters, 256-bit

A bare 32-character digest

Input

c614b34a5a07e330f1bd160cffbed477

Output

MD5 — 32 hex characters, 128-bit (also possible: NTLM, MD4)

A password hash that names itself

Input

$2y$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy

Output

bcrypt — 60 modular-crypt characters

// common uses

Working out what a `sha256:` digest in a Dockerfile or lockfile refers to Telling an MD5 apart from an NTLM hash of the same length Checking whether a digest was truncated or partially copied Recognising a bcrypt or Argon2 password hash in a database dump

// faq

Can this reverse a hash back to the original text?

No, and nothing can. A cryptographic hash is one-way by design — the input isn't stored in the output. Sites that appear to reverse hashes are looking the digest up in a precomputed table of already-known inputs; they fail on anything not already in that table. This tool identifies what produced a digest, it doesn't undo it.

What does the `sha256:` prefix mean?

It's the OCI/Docker image-digest format. You'll see it in Dockerfiles, `docker images --digests` output, Kubernetes manifests and CI logs, where it pins an image to one exact build. The part after the colon is an ordinary SHA-256 digest in hex.

Why does one hash match several algorithms?

Identification is based on length and character set, and different algorithms can produce the same length. A 32-character hex string is 128-bit, which MD5, NTLM and MD4 all output. Nothing in the digest itself distinguishes them — only knowing where it came from does.

How is a bcrypt or Argon2 hash different?

Those are password hashes in modular-crypt format: they carry their own algorithm ID, cost parameter and salt inside the string (`$2y$10$…`). That's why they're identified exactly rather than guessed — the string states what it is.

Is my hash uploaded anywhere?

No. Identification runs entirely in your browser from the digest's own shape, so nothing you paste leaves your machine.

// works with your data

SHA-256 Hash Generator MD5 Hash Generator SHA-1 Hash Generator Hash Generator HMAC Generator

Use this via API

Get a free API key →

curl -X POST https://thesnaptools.com/api/v1/tools/hash-identifier \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text":"sha256:8cbdea5f3e3073f6952af2b00fa7447a92cf67b628682a72729641eb7b6a1ec3"}'