// LEARN / PASSWORDS
How strong is my password?
See how long a password would take a criminal to crack and what gives it away. Everything happens on your own device, and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Need a new one? Use our password generator to make a strong one.
// CHECKER
Check a password
Checked on this device only. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, saved or seen by us. If you’d rather, try something similar to your real password instead. Read more in our privacy policy.
Or try an example
What’s the difference? Websites shouldn’t keep your actual password, only a scrambled copy of it. When a website is hacked, criminals usually get those scrambled copies and have to work out each password by trial and error, using powerful computers. That’s the worst case. Day to day, the risk is someone guessing at a login page, which is far slower. A few badly run websites don’t scramble passwords at all, so a hack there gives criminals the password straight away. That’s why you should never use the same password on more than one site.
What a cracking program would spot
Need a stronger one? Make one with our free password generator.
// STAYING SAFE
Four habits that matter more than any single password
Never reuse a password
When one website is hacked, criminals try the same email and password everywhere else. A different password for each account stops one leak becoming ten.
Let a password manager remember them
The one built into your phone or browser is fine, such as Apple Passwords, Google Password Manager or Microsoft Edge. You only need to remember one strong password.
Turn on two-step verification
A code from your phone as well as your password. Do your email first, because whoever controls your email can reset everything else.
Check if you’ve been in a leak
Put your email address into Have I Been Pwned, a free, well-respected service. If it shows up, change that password and anywhere you used it.
Crack times are estimates from zxcvbn, the open-source strength checker built by Dropbox, which looks for common passwords, words, names, dates and keyboard patterns. We’ve added common UK words such as football clubs and local place names. Real attacks vary, so treat the numbers as a guide.