What this tool calculates
MD5 maps any byte sequence to a 128-bit digest, displayed here as 32 hexadecimal characters. It is useful when an older download manifest, test fixture or application specifically requires MD5. The same bytes always produce the same digest; the digest does not reveal the input length or provide a reversible encoding.
This page starts with MD5 as the primary result and also calculates SHA-256 and SHA-512 for a single text input. Those are different algorithms, not alternative spellings of MD5. A checksum published as MD5 must be compared with MD5, even if the other output appears longer or stronger.
MD5 is not suitable for digital signatures or security decisions requiring collision resistance. Matching a file against an untrusted checksum does not establish who created it. Do not paste passwords to “encrypt” them: this tool neither encrypts data nor supplies a password-storage scheme.
Worked example
UTF-8 · abc · MD5
900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72
How to calculate and compare
- Enter the exact text in Input text, or choose Example to load
abc. Text is encoded as UTF-8; spaces and line endings are preserved. - In single-text mode, non-empty input up to 64 KiB updates after a short pause. Click Generate hash for empty input or larger text. Changing the input clears the previous result.
- To check a saved file instead, open File checksum, confirm the algorithm, and choose or drop the file. File mode reads its original bytes and starts automatically.
For line-by-line results, enable One hash per line, choose whether to include empty lines, then click Generate hash. Line mode does not calculate automatically. CRLF, LF and CR separate records and are not included in each line's digest. Duplicate lines retain their original line numbers.
Paste only the complete hexadecimal reference into Compare expected value (optional) and click Check. Letter case and surrounding pasted whitespace are ignored; internal spaces and the wrong length are rejected. Copy retains the full result. TXT and CSV exports include identifiers, algorithm names and digests, not source text or secret keys.
Limits, privacy and next steps
Text is limited to 10 MiB and line mode to 10,000 records, including empty records before filtering. Files are limited to 50 queue entries and 1 GiB each, read sequentially in 2 MiB chunks. These limits protect browser resources; they do not guarantee fast processing on every phone. Cancel if needed. Calculation takes place in the browser, while normal page and asset requests still reach the hosting service.
Checking an older MD5 download manifest
Start with the exact release and filename named by the publisher. Download the artifact without opening and resaving it, switch to File checksum and select MD5. A downloaded archive and its extracted files are separate byte sequences: compare the archive itself when that is what the manifest lists.
A typical md5sum record contains a digest followed by a filename. Paste only its 32-character digest into the comparison field, not the whole line. Keep the reference source and release version with your exported result. If the publisher also supplies a SHA-256 reference, verify that separately with SHA-256; do not compare the two algorithms against each other.
Reproduce a newline mismatch
Calculate an empty editor manually, then compare abc with abc followed by one LF newline. These are three different inputs. In line mode the separator is excluded, so use single-text mode for this test.
MD5 / empty UTF-8:
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
MD5 / abc:
900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72
MD5 / abc + LF (61 62 63 0a):
0bee89b07a248e27c83fc3d5951213c1
MD5 mismatches: fix the input, not the digest
| Observed problem | Why it happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A reference contains a filename | A manifest line is not a bare digest | Copy the 32 hexadecimal characters only. |
| Text matches visually, but MD5 differs | A trailing newline, BOM or encoding changed the bytes | Hash the saved file, or reproduce the exact UTF-8 input. |
| The reference has 16 characters | It may be a shortened convention rather than a full MD5 | Ask for the full 32-character value; do not pad it. |