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The best password generator of 2025: Expert tested
When it comes to creating strong, secure passwords, the best course of action is to use a password generator, which is much better than humans are at randomizing characters into long (16 or more) and hard-to-crack credentials. Thankfully, there are numerous tools available.
Also: The best password managers
What is the best password generator right now?
At ZDNET, we’ve tested a long list of password generators to find the top tools for creating strong (random) passwords to secure your digital accounts. The best password generator is the one you’ll actually use — and if you have a password manager, the simplest and most seamless way to create and save strong passwords is to use the built-in generator.
That said, NordPass has a solid password generator tool available to both its password manager subscribers and anyone with access to a web browser, as do other highly recommended password management companies, like Bitwarden and 1Password. These are the best password generators in 2025.
The best password generator of 2025
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NordPass is a top-rated secure password manager, and its password generator is available to users on free and paid plans as well as anyone with access to a web browser. You can adjust settings to include or omit upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and ambiguous characters (such as uppercase O and the numeral 0). The generator defaults to a password length of 20 characters but allows as few as eight and as many as 64. There’s also a strength indicator that lets you know whether your password is weak, moderate, or strong.
Review: NordPass
The web version of the NordPass generator allows you to copy the password directly, to paste wherever you need it. If you’re using the generator built into the NordPass app or extension, you can create and autofill a password to meet site requirements and save your password to a new or existing record. The latter also allows passphrase creation of three to 10 words with multiple punctuation options for word separation.
NordPass features: Password strength indicator | Password length customization
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Bitwarden has one of the best free password managers, which comes with a built-in password generator. But you can use the web-based generator to create strong passwords and passphrases even if you aren’t a Bitwarden subscriber. The tool will generate passwords of five to 128 characters (default is 14) and passphrases with three to 20 words (default is five).
Review: Bitwarden
You can opt to have upper- and lowercase letters, numerals, and/or special characters — if you’re using the generator within the Bitwarden app, you can also exclude ambiguous characters and select the minimum number of numerals and special characters to include. Passphrases can be generated with capital letters and numbers. The web generator has a strength indicator with an estimated time to crack.
Bitwarden also has a separate strength-testing tool evaluated against zxcvbn that allows you to paste generated or existing passwords.
Bitwarden features: Password and passphrase generator | password strength indicator | case, character, and number customization
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1Password is another highly recommended password manager with a built-in password generation function and a standalone web-based password generator. You can create passwords with eight to 100 characters, passphrases with three to 15 words, and PIN codes of three to 12 digits. 1Password doesn’t have as many granular settings for which characters to include or exclude, but if you’re using the in-app generator (with a paid password manager subscription), you can select “smart passwords” to match site requirements. From there, you can also save and update vault records.
Review: 1Password
Unlike some password managers, 1Password doesn’t make it easy to find the built-in password generator, as there’s no tab or button to open this tool in the mobile or desktop apps — instead, you have to go through manually adding a record or auto-filling a new or existing login. There is an option to quickly generate a password in the browser extension, however.
1Password features: Password, passphrase, and PIN generator | Generates smart passwords to match site requirements
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The LastPass web-based password generator will create secure passwords up to 50 characters, which you can copy and paste where needed. Users of the LastPass password manager can create, fill, and save passwords up to 100 characters through their vault, browser extension, or form fields. In addition to toggle options for upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, LastPass has defaults for “easy to say” passwords (without numbers and special characters) and “easy to read” passwords (without ambiguous characters).
Like other password managers, LastPass will suggest strong passwords in form fields, and the in-app generator will indicate password strength based on the zxcvbn library. The online generator defaults to 12 characters including any character combination (note that LastPass’ own FAQ says strong passwords should have at least 15 characters).
LastPass features: Password strength indicator | Business and personal accounts | Case, number, and symbol customization
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Random Password Generator is one of several password generator websites not associated with a password manager or other security-focused app, so you can access it in any browser. The generator will create up to 100 passwords at once, ranging from four to 64 characters, with more criteria settings than most, such as the option to exclude sequential or repeated characters.
As a web-based tool, Random Password Generator won’t automatically save to your password manager, but it’s a simple and quick option for creating strong, secure passwords on your local device.
Random Password Generator features: Can generate multiple passwords at once | Case, number, and symbol customization
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NordPass is our top pick for password generation, thanks to its criteria options and integration with a highly recommended password manager. But the other options on our list aren’t far behind. Here’s how the best password generators compare:
| Password generator | Criteria settings | Passphrase generator | Password manager integration |
| NordPass | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bitwarden | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1Password | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| LastPass | ✓ | x | ✓ |
| Random Password Generator | ✓ | x | x |
| Choose this password generator… | If you want… |
| NordPass | A user-friendly password and passphrase generator with multiple criteria settings. |
| Bitwarden | A robust password generator that can be used within or separately from a highly secure password manager. |
| 1Password | A password generator that can also create random passphrases and PIN codes. |
| LastPass | A basic password generator with easy-to-understand presets. |
| Random Password Generator | A web-based app with the option to generate multiple passwords at once. |
Gone are the days of “abc123” being a suitable password to protect your accounts from bad actors. Strong, formidable passwords require a random string of numbers, letters, and characters, making them hard to remember. Password generators offer users a tool for creating strong passwords, but there are a few factors to consider before using one:
- Seamless use: An easy-to-use password generator will be a built-in tool that seamlessly suggests, fills in, and saves passwords that meet the criteria of the websites and services you use.
- Security: Before using a password generator, make sure it doesn’t save, transmit, or store your generated passwords.
- Customization: A decent password generator will provide multiple ways to customize your password, offering settings to change letter cases, numbers, and symbols.
To find the best password generators for creating secure passwords, we tested tools available both within password management apps and via web browser for anyone to access. We compared available settings and ease of use across platforms.
Password generators from reputable companies, such as those that develop secure password management software, are safe to use, thanks to strong encryption and algorithms for creating complex combinations. These tools also don’t store your generated passwords on their servers. However, you shouldn’t use any password generator you find without vetting it first.
All the password generators on our list are free to use on the web. Those connected to password management software are also available to subscribers, within those services’ apps and extensions. Generating passwords from your password manager makes it easier to save credentials directly to your vault.
Though the options above offer plenty of avenues to create random and secure passwords, you may be interested in alternatives. Here are a couple of our other recommendations.
