Passphrase Generator
- 6 words
Free Random Passphrase Generator
Make a passphrase from random words: easy to remember, easy to type, and hard to guess. It is the xkcd idea and the Diceware method done properly, with a secure random number generator and an honest strength count. The default, six random words, is strong enough for almost anything you type by hand.
Choose 3 to 12 words, what goes between them, capitals, a number, a symbol, and a maximum length. Words come in English and nine other languages. Don’t like one word? Tap it to swap just that one. The passphrase is made on your device and never sent anywhere.
Jump to: What is it for? · How many words? · Three random words · How to remember it · Questions
What Is the Passphrase For?
A passphrase is for a secret you type yourself. Pick the job and the generator opens with the right settings.
- Master passwordThe one password you can never forget: it unlocks your password manager. Capitals and a number satisfy apps that insist on them.7 words · capitals · a number
- Disk encryptionBitLocker, FileVault, VeraCrypt, or LUKS. It guards everything on the disk, so it gets the most words.8 words
- SSH or GPG keyUnlocks your private key each time you use it.6 words
- Said aloud or typed on a TVPlain words with spaces are easy to read out over the phone or type with a remote.6 words · spaces
- A site with strict password rulesCapitals, random digits between the words, and one symbol meet “upper, lower, number, and symbol” rules.6 words · capitals · digits between · a symbol
- Three random wordsThe UK government’s advice for online accounts. Fine where the site limits wrong guesses and you use two-step sign-in. Too weak for anything else, as explained below.3 words · capitals · a number · Weak if a password file is stolen
- New accounts for a teamTen different passphrases, one per line, each with its own copy button. For a whole class or company, use the bulk generator.10 passphrases, 6 words each
- Website or app accountIf you never type it, a random string is shorter for the same strength.Password generator
How Many Words Do You Need?
Every word you add makes the passphrase about 7,400 times harder to guess, so the time to crack grows much faster than the passphrase does:
- velvet-
harbor- 2 secondsOnly for an online account with two-step sign-insketch - velvet-
harbor- 4 hoursNot enough on its ownsketch- lantern - velvet-
harbor- 4 yearsA phone or laptop that locks after a few wrong triessketch- lantern- cactus - velvet-
harbor- 26,000 yearsEveryday accounts, computer logins, SSH keyssketch- lantern- cactus- walrus - velvet-
harbor- 200 million yearsPassword managers and encrypted diskssketch- lantern- cactus- walrus- canyon - velvet-
harbor- 1.5 trillion yearsAnything that must stay safe for decadessketch- lantern- cactus- walrus- canyon- pebble
These are worst-case times: an attacker with a stolen copy of your hashed passphrase, graphics cards making 100 billion guesses a second, and your exact word list. Guessing through a sign-in page is millions of times slower. So: six words for most things, seven or eight for a password manager or an encrypted disk.
Capitals add almost nothing, because an attacker can capitalize every word too. A number or symbol adds a little. Another word adds the most. If a site has a length limit, open Any length and choose it: the generator then makes only passphrases that fit, and the strength line drops to match.
Is a 3 Word Password Enough?
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre tells people to use “three random words”, and plenty of people now look for a 3 word password generator. The advice is sound for what it was written for: an online account that blocks repeated guesses, ideally with two-step sign-in. Guessing three random words through a sign-in page at 10 tries a second would take around 650 years.
The catch is a data breach. If the site’s hashed passwords are stolen, the same three words fall in about 2 seconds, and capitals, a number, and a symbol only stretch that to minutes. So use three words only where the NCSC means them. For a password manager, a computer login, Wi-Fi, or an encrypted disk, use six or more. The Three random words example above opens the generator with NCSC-style settings, and the strength line shows honestly how weak it is.
An xkcd Password Generator, Done Properly
The famous xkcd comic argued that four random common words are easier to remember than “Tr0ub4dor&3” and harder to crack. It was right about the idea. Its numbers were only an illustration, though: four words from a list of 2,048 is 44 bits, which today’s graphics cards get through in a couple of minutes.
This generator keeps the idea and fixes the numbers: lists of about 7,400 words instead of 2,048, six words by default instead of four, no word twice, and a secure random number generator instead of a person picking. Six words give 77 bits, about 26,000 years at 100 billion guesses a second.
The “random” part matters most. People who choose their own words pick lyrics, quotes, names, and places, and cracking tools try those first. Even “correct horse battery staple” from the comic now turns up in data breaches hundreds of times. Words picked at random have no pattern to find, so the numbers hold even if an attacker knows you used PassGen.co. Already using a passphrase you made up? Test it in the password strength checker.
How to Remember a Passphrase
- Make a picture. Imagine the words as a short, silly scene, in order. A walrus with a lantern in a canyon sticks far better than six separate words.
- Type it often at first. Use it several times a day for the first week. After that, your fingers remember it.
- Write it down while you learn it. Keep the paper at home, never with the device it unlocks, and destroy it once you know the passphrase by heart.
- Keep the separators. Hyphens or spaces show where you went wrong, and cost nothing.
Passphrases in Your Own Language
Words you know are easier to remember and type. Choose a word list with the globe button: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Português, Català, Nederlands, Українська, or Русский. Every main list keeps about 7,100 to 7,900 words, so a passphrase in any of them is as strong as one in English.
Ukrainian and Russian also come in Latin letters, because the start-up screen of an encrypted laptop, a TV, or a router’s admin page often has only a US keyboard, and a passphrase you cannot type there locks you out. For the same reason, test a disk-encryption passphrase at the start-up screen before you rely on it, or use a list without accents.
English (short words) uses words of three to five letters, quicker to type on a phone or a TV remote. With fewer words to choose from, each one adds less, so use eight short words for the strength of six from the main list.
How It Works: Technical Details
For anyone who wants to check the details.
Show the technical details
- Secure randomness: each word is picked with
crypto.getRandomValues(), using rejection sampling so every word is exactly as likely as every other. A word already in the passphrase is drawn again, so no word appears twice. - Strength estimate: the exact number of different passphrases the settings can make. Without a maximum length that is N × (N − 1) × … for the number of words, from a list of N words. Random digits between words multiply it by 10 per gap, “add a number” by 10 × words (which digit, which word), and “add a symbol” by 8 × words (one of ! @ # $ % ^ & *, which word). Capitals add nothing, and neither does a Custom separator, because you chose it. Bits = log2 of that number. Time to crack = 2bits − 1 ÷ 1011 seconds.
- Maximum length: the generator counts exactly how many passphrases fit, by working through the list’s word lengths, and draws one of those at random, every one equally likely. The strength is the count of those that fit.
- Swapped words: for each word swapped k times, the strength drops by log2(k + 1) bits, the most that choosing one of k + 1 words can give away.
- Dice-sized lists: most lists start with 7,776 words, which is 6 × 6 × 6 × 6 × 6, the number of ways five dice can land. That is the Diceware method: roll five dice and look up a word. The Spanish, Italian, and Catalan lists have 8,192, and the short English list 1,296, for four dice. Because of the clean-up below, the generator uses your browser’s random number generator rather than dice numbers.
- Clean-up: words that contain a separator character, such as “yo-yo”, are removed so they cannot blur where one word ends. So are capitalized names such as places, and words that would be unpleasant or awkward in a passphrase you might say aloud, such as illnesses, drugs, weapons, and slurs. Usable words: English 7,424, English (short words) 1,234, Deutsch 7,142, Español 7,523, Français 7,347, Italiano 7,788, Português 7,429, Català 7,885, Nederlands 7,373, Українська 7,430, Українська (латиницею) 7,480, Русский and Русский (латиницей) 7,608 each. The strength uses these numbers, so it stays exact.
- Word lists: English is the EFF Long Wordlist (CC BY 4.0) and English (short words) the EFF Short Wordlist 1 (CC BY 3.0 US). German, Spanish, Italian, and Catalan come from the ulif diceware lists (CC BY), French from the Tails project (CC0), Dutch from mko.re (CC BY), and Ukrainian from git-leaf (MIT). The Russian list was built for PassGen.co from OpenRussian.org data (CC BY-SA 4.0), and the Portuguese list from OpenSubtitles frequency data (hermitdave/FrequencyWords) and Portuguese Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good passphrase example?
Something like velvet-harbor-sketch-lantern-cactus-walrus: six words with no connection to each other or to you. Never use an example you have seen published, including this one. Make your own above.
Is a four-word passphrase secure?
Only where wrong guesses are limited, such as a phone that locks after a few tries. If the hashed passphrase were stolen, four words would fall in hours. Use six words for accounts and seven or more for anything that protects other passwords.
What is the difference between a passphrase and a password?
A password is usually a short string of mixed characters; a passphrase is a longer string of words. For the same strength a passphrase is longer, but much easier to type and remember. Use a passphrase for what you type yourself, and a random password for what your password manager fills in.
Is this a Diceware generator?
It uses the same method: words drawn at random from a list sized for dice, most with 7,776 words, the number of ways five dice can land. Instead of rolling dice, it uses your browser’s secure random number generator, which is just as random and much quicker. The strength shown counts the exact list it uses.
Why does a long passphrase show a short time to crack?
Strength depends on how many passphrases your settings could make, not on how many letters they have. An attacker guesses whole words from the list, so long words help no more than short ones, and capitals on every word add nothing. Another word multiplies the time by about 7,400.
Can I change just one word?
Yes. Tap or click the word, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter. Only that word changes. The strength line takes a little off for each swap, because a word you picked is slightly less random than one you did not.
Can I make several passphrases at once?
Yes. Open Several passphrases under the result and choose up to 16, each with its own copy button. For a whole class or company, the bulk password generator makes up to 1,000 and exports them for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Active Directory.
Can I use spaces in a passphrase?
Usually. Most websites, operating systems, and encryption tools accept spaces. A few older systems strip or reject them, so if you are unsure, use hyphens. If a site rejects hyphens too, choose Custom and type a character it accepts. The strength is the same either way.
How do I add a passphrase to an SSH or GPG key?
For an existing SSH key, run ssh-keygen -p -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 and paste the passphrase when asked. For GPG, run gpg --passwd followed by your key ID. New keys ask for a passphrase when you create them.
Can I use this for a crypto wallet seed phrase?
No. A 12- or 24-word recovery phrase must come from your wallet, which uses its own word list and a built-in checksum, so words from here would not be valid. The optional BIP39 passphrase some wallets offer is different: you choose it yourself, so a passphrase from here works well for it. Store it as carefully as the recovery phrase, because the wallet cannot be restored without it.
Is it safe to make a passphrase online?
Here, yes. The passphrase is made by code that runs in your browser and is never sent to us. Once the page has loaded it works with no internet connection, so you can disconnect before you generate one if you want to be sure.