How to Generate a Password You Can Actually Trust

By the Super Simple Digital Tools Team · Updated June 2026 · Text & Developer

Most weak passwords fail for the same reason: they contain a pattern a human chose. Names, dates, substitutions like @ for a, and keyboard runs are all predictable, and attackers feed exactly these patterns into cracking tools first. A randomly generated password removes the pattern entirely, which means the only viable attack is to try every possible combination. That is why generating, rather than inventing, your passwords is the single biggest upgrade most people can make to their account security.

The strength of a random password is captured by entropy, expressed in bits. The formula is length multiplied by the base-2 logarithm of the size of the character pool you drew from. A pool of all 94 printable ASCII characters gives about 6.55 bits per character, so a 12-character password lands near 78 bits and a 16-character one tops 100 bits. Every additional bit doubles the number of guesses an attacker must make, so the difference between 60 and 80 bits is not 33 percent stronger, it is over a million times harder to crack.

There are two levers for raising entropy: enlarge the character pool or increase the length. Turning on symbols and digits widens the pool, but adding length gives a steadier, more reliable gain and avoids sites that quietly reject certain symbols. This is the reasoning behind the modern shift, reflected in NIST's 2024 guidance, away from forced complexity rules and toward simply allowing and encouraging longer passwords and passphrases. When a service caps the length, max it out before fretting about which symbol classes to include.

The randomness source matters as much as the settings. This generator uses crypto.getRandomValues from the Web Crypto API, which pulls from the operating system's secure entropy pool. That distinction is important: the older Math.random function is a predictable pseudo-random generator never intended for security, and a password built from it can be reconstructed if its internal state is known. Because secure randomness runs locally, your password is also never sent over the network, so it cannot be intercepted in transit or stored on a server you do not control.

Putting it together: pick a length of 16 or more, enable the character types the site accepts, and let the live entropy readout confirm you have cleared a comfortable threshold before you copy. Paste the result straight into a password manager so you never have to remember or retype it, and enable two-factor authentication on accounts that support it. A strong unique password closes the brute-force door; a manager and a second factor handle the rest.

Quick tips

• Default to 16+ characters and only shorten if a site refuses the length; length beats added symbols for raising entropy.
• Watch the live bit count and aim past 80 bits for accounts that hold money, email, or personal data.
• Turn on 'exclude ambiguous characters' for passwords you will type by hand or read aloud, such as Wi-Fi keys.
• Generate a unique password per account, store it in a password manager immediately, then clear your clipboard.

The Password Generator is free to use as often as you like — no signup required.