A random 64-character password is the maximum many systems accept — for master keys and WPA. With all 94 printable characters it has about 419 bits of entropy. Use the generator above — it opens at 64 characters, and you can still adjust the length if a site needs something different.
Why 64 characters?
NIST requires services to accept passwords of at least 64 characters, so 64 is a natural “maximum length” many systems support. At that size a random password has about 420 bits of entropy with all character types — more than any cryptographic algorithm can use, so it will never be the weak link.
Good uses for 64-character passwords
- Passphrases for encrypted archives and backups (7-Zip, VeraCrypt containers, Restic, BorgBackup).
- Recovery keys and break-glass admin credentials stored in a safe.
- Pre-shared keys for VPNs such as IPsec site-to-site tunnels.
A note on Wi-Fi
WPA2 and WPA3 passphrases are limited to 63 characters; a 64-character value is interpreted as a raw hexadecimal key. For Wi-Fi, use the Wi-Fi password generator, which keeps you inside the valid range.
Check the maximum before you paste
Some sites silently truncate long passwords, which can lock you out later. After setting a 64-character password, sign out and back in once to confirm it was accepted in full. bcrypt-based systems only use the first 72 bytes, so 64 ASCII characters are safely within that limit.
How strong is a 64-character password?
The table shows how many different 64-character passwords exist for each character set, and how long an offline attacker testing 100 billion guesses per second (a multi-GPU rig against a fast hash such as MD5 or NTLM) would need on average to find a randomly generated one.
| Character set | Possible passwords | Entropy | Average time to crack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Numbers only (0–9) | 1.0 × 1064 | 213 bits | far longer than the age of the universe |
| Lowercase letters | 3.6 × 1090 | 301 bits | far longer than the age of the universe |
| Letters (A–Z, a–z) | 6.7 × 10109 | 365 bits | far longer than the age of the universe |
| Letters + numbers | 5.2 × 10114 | 381 bits | far longer than the age of the universe |
| All printable characters | 1.9 × 10126 | 419 bits | far longer than the age of the universe |
These figures assume the password is truly random. A 64-character password built from a word, a name or a date can be cracked in a tiny fraction of this time. Check any password with the strength checker.
Other password lengths
- 8 characters
- 10 characters
- 12 characters
- 14 characters
- 15 characters
- 16 characters
- 20 characters
- 24 characters
- 32 characters
- 64 characters
Last updated: · Reviewed by the Password Generator team