How to Create Strong Passwords That Are Hard to Crack

Weak passwords are still the most common cause of account compromises. "password123", pet names, and birthdays are easy to guess. A random password for each account is the simplest defense.

What Makes a Password Strong

FactorWeakStrong
Length8 characters16+ characters
Character typesLetters onlyUpper + lower + numbers + symbols
PatternDictionary wordRandom, no pattern
ReuseSame password everywhereUnique per account

How to Generate a Strong Password

  1. Open Password Generator.
  2. Set length to 16 or more characters.
  3. Enable uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols.
  4. Optionally exclude similar characters (0/O, 1/l/I) for easier reading.
  5. Click Generate and copy the result.

Recommended Lengths

Account TypeMinimum Length
Social media12 characters
Email16 characters
Banking, financial20 characters
Master password20+ characters

How to Remember Random Passwords

You do not need to memorize random passwords. Use a password manager (1Password, Bitwarden, KeePass) to store them. You only need to remember one strong master password.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the same password for multiple sites
  • Adding "1" or "!" to a weak password and calling it strong
  • Changing passwords by incrementing a number (password1, password2...)
  • Sharing passwords via unencrypted chat

Privacy

Our password generator uses your browser's cryptographic random number generator. Passwords are created locally and never sent to any server.