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Password Strength Checker

Test any password for strength, entropy, and estimated crack time. The tool evaluates password length, character variety, common patterns, keyboard walks, sequential characters, repeated characters, and matches against common password lists. Crack time estimates cover three attack scenarios: online throttled (100 guesses per second), online unthrottled (10,000 guesses per second), and offline GPU cracking (100 billion guesses per second). All analysis runs entirely in your browser \u2014 your password is never sent to any server, never stored, and never logged.

Why Password Strength Matters

Weak passwords are responsible for over 80% of data breaches. Common words, personal information, and predictable patterns (like "Password123!" or "Summer2024") can be cracked in seconds by modern GPU clusters. A strong password uses length, character variety, and avoids dictionary words and patterns. Each additional character multiplies crack time \u2014 a 16-character password with mixed types takes centuries to crack, while an 8-character one can fall in minutes.

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Deep Dive: The Complete Password Strength Guide
Entropy math, the five score tiers, three attacker models, pattern penalties, length versus complexity, master-password strategies, and the workflow for using the checker without ever typing your real password.

See also: After evaluating password strength, the Encrypted Notepad stores notes encrypted client-side under that password.

Common Use Cases

Auditing your own password manager's entries to identify the ones that need rotation, where the manager itself tells you "weak" but doesn't explain why. Generating a personal sense of what a passphrase "feels like in entropy terms" before committing it to memory for a high-value account. Teaching a non-technical family member why their pet's name plus a birth year is not a strong password, with a visible score they can react to.

Validating a password-policy proposal before locking it into a corporate IT standard — some common policies (forced quarterly rotation, no special characters) actively reduce password strength when graded against modern research. Spot-checking the strength of passwords surfaced in a security audit to triage which ones need immediate replacement. Estimating realistic crack times for offline vs online attack scenarios on candidate passwords.

How We Compare

Most modern password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane) include their own strength gauges and will flag weak entries. They're the right tool when the password is already in the manager. For a quick "is this candidate strong enough" check on a password you haven't committed to yet, or for teaching scenarios, a standalone checker is faster than the round-trip through a vault.

This tool uses zxcvbn-style heuristics (dictionary checks, pattern detection, keyboard-walk recognition, repeated-character penalties) plus an entropy estimate, and reports both a score and a plain-language explanation of why the score is what it is. The password is never sent anywhere — all scoring runs locally in your browser, so even "test" passwords stay on your device. For generating fresh random secrets to replace weak ones, see env generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to enter my password here?+
Yes. All password analysis runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your password is never transmitted to any server, never stored, and never logged. For peace of mind, you can disconnect your internet and the tool still works.
What is password entropy?+
Entropy measures the unpredictability of a password in bits. Each additional bit doubles the number of possible passwords. 60+ bits of entropy is considered strong; 80+ bits is excellent. A 12-character password using mixed case, numbers, and symbols has roughly 77 bits of entropy.
How are crack times calculated?+
The tool estimates crack time for three attack scenarios: online throttled (100 guesses per second), online unthrottled (10K guesses per second), and offline fast hashing (100 billion guesses per second using GPU arrays). Real attack speeds vary based on the hash algorithm and hardware used.
What patterns does the tool detect?+
The checker flags common passwords (top 10K list), keyboard walks (qwerty, asdfgh), sequential characters (abc, 123), repeated characters (aaaa), dates and years (1990-2030), and common substitutions (P@ssw0rd, L3tm31n).
How does the checker estimate strength?+
It uses zxcvbn (Dropbox’s open-source strength estimator) — the gold standard for password evaluation. The score considers dictionary words, common patterns (keyboard walks, dates), substitutions (a → @, e → 3), and entropy.
Why is "P@ssw0rd123!" rated weak?+
Because attackers know all the common substitutions. zxcvbn estimates the cracking time, not just character variety — "P@ssw0rd" is in every password-cracking wordlist with substitution rules applied automatically.
What’s a "strong" password score?+
zxcvbn rates passwords 0–4. Aim for 4 (cracking time estimated in centuries even at offline attack speeds). A passphrase of 4+ random common words (correct-horse-battery-staple style) typically scores 4.
Is the password sent anywhere?+
No. zxcvbn runs entirely in your browser — the password never leaves your device. Use the tool freely on real passwords without exposure risk.

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