RIPEMD-160 Hash Generator
Generate the RIPEMD-160 hash of any text, in hexadecimal or base64, and optionally verify it against an expected hash.
Input
Hex comparison is case-insensitive; base64 is case-sensitive.
Output
Only shown when an expected hash is provided.
Guides
Paste any text and get its RIPEMD-160 hash instantly, as lowercase hex, uppercase hex, or base64. You can also paste a hash you already have into the "Expected hash" box and the tool will tell you whether the two match — useful when you are reproducing a digest that another system emitted.
Everything runs in your browser. The text you type is never uploaded, logged, or sent to a server.
What is RIPEMD-160?
RIPEMD-160 is a hash function that takes any input — a word, a paragraph, a file's contents — and reduces it to a fixed 160-bit fingerprint, written as 40 hexadecimal characters. The same input always produces the same fingerprint, and changing a single character produces a completely different one. It was published in 1996 as a strengthened member of the RIPEMD family, designed in the open academic community as an alternative to the then-dominant MD and SHA designs.
Is RIPEMD-160 secure?
RIPEMD-160 is not in the same category as MD5 or SHA-1: there is no known practical collision attack against the full 160-bit function, and it has held up well over the decades. That said, it is a niche choice today. It has received far less cryptanalytic attention than SHA-2, its 160-bit output offers less collision resistance headroom than SHA-256, and most standards and libraries have standardised on the SHA-2 and SHA-3 families. For new designs, prefer SHA-256. Reach for RIPEMD-160 when you need to interoperate with a system that already uses it.
Where is RIPEMD-160 actually used?
Its most visible modern use is in cryptocurrency addresses. Bitcoin (and many chains derived from it) computes HASH160(x) = RIPEMD160(SHA256(x)) to turn a public key into the short 160-bit value embedded in an address. Applying SHA-256 first, then RIPEMD-160, yields a compact 20-byte identifier — shorter than a raw SHA-256 digest while keeping strong preimage resistance. You will also find RIPEMD-160 in older PGP/OpenPGP configurations and various legacy protocols.
Why does my hash differ from another tool's?
Usually one of three reasons:
- Trailing newline. Hashing
helloandhello\ngives different results. Command-line tools often include the newline; a text box usually does not. - Character encoding. This tool encodes your text as UTF-8 before hashing, which is what modern systems do. A tool using UTF-16 or Latin-1 will disagree on any non-ASCII character.
- Double hashing. Bitcoin's HASH160 runs SHA-256 first. This tool computes plain RIPEMD-160 of your input — it does not apply SHA-256 beforehand.
Need a different algorithm?
Use the SHA Hash Generator for the SHA family, the MD5 Hash Generator for MD5, or the general Hash Generator for every algorithm in one place.