SHA-512 hash generator

SHA-512 is the 64-bit-word member of SHA-2, producing 512 bits (128 hex characters). On 64-bit CPUs it is often faster than SHA-256 for long inputs. Use it when a spec asks for it or you want a larger security margin.

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Where SHA-512 is used

  • Linux password hashes ($6$ crypt) — as the core of a slow KDF, not alone
  • Ed25519 signatures use it internally
  • Integrity checks on large files

Command line

sha512sum file.txt
shasum -a 512 file.txt   # macOS
echo -n "text" | sha512sum

In code

# Python
hashlib.sha512(b"text").hexdigest()

// Node.js
crypto.createHash('sha512').update('text').digest('hex')

Hashing is deterministic and one-way: the same bytes always give the same 512-bit value, and a one-character change scrambles it completely — try the avalanche demo.

Questions

How long is a SHA-512 hash?

512 bits, written as 128 hexadecimal characters (or 86 Base64 characters plus padding).

Is SHA-512 secure?

Secure. There are no known practical collision or preimage attacks. For passwords, still use a slow password hash (Argon2id, scrypt, bcrypt) rather than a single fast hash.

Can I decrypt a SHA-512 hash?

No — hashing is one-way. Lookup sites only find inputs that are already in their tables of common strings.

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