bcrypt

A small command-line tool for generating bcrypt password hashes.

Requirements

• No local Go installation is required when using a prebuilt release.
• Building or installing with go install requires Go 1.27 or newer.

Install a prebuilt release

Download the archive for your operating system and processor from the latest GitHub release:

Operating system	Intel/AMD 64-bit	ARM 64-bit
Linux	linux_amd64.tar.gz	linux_arm64.tar.gz
macOS	darwin_amd64.tar.gz	darwin_arm64.tar.gz
Windows	windows_amd64.zip	windows_arm64.zip

Extract the archive and place bcrypt (or bcrypt.exe on Windows) in a directory included in your PATH. On Linux and macOS, for example:

tar -xzf bcrypt_VERSION_OS_ARCH.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 bcrypt /usr/local/bin/bcrypt
bcrypt version

Each release includes checksums.txt so downloads can be verified before installation.

Install from GitHub

Install the latest version directly from GitHub:

go install github.com/nikolay-dyakov/bcrypt@latest

Go installs the executable in GOBIN when it is configured, or in $(go env GOPATH)/bin otherwise. Make sure that directory is included in your PATH. For example, Bash and Zsh users can add this to their shell profile:

export PATH="$(go env GOPATH)/bin:$PATH"

Open a new terminal and verify the installation:

bcrypt version

Run the same go install command again whenever you want to upgrade to the latest version.

Build from source

Clone the repository and build it locally:

git clone https://github.com/nikolay-dyakov/bcrypt.git
cd bcrypt
go build -o bcrypt .

Usage

Run without -p to enter the password using a hidden terminal prompt:

bcrypt

You can also pipe a password into the tool:

printf '%s' 'correct horse battery staple' | bcrypt

Copy the generated hash directly to the clipboard:

bcrypt -clipboard

Display the installed version using any of these forms:

bcrypt version
bcrypt -version
bcrypt --version

The default bcrypt cost is 13. Override it when needed:

bcrypt -cost 12

Costs below 10 are rejected. The best cost depends on the hardware and workload of the system that will verify the hashes; choose the highest cost that keeps password verification within the application's latency budget. Bcrypt accepts passwords of at most 72 bytes.

The -p/-password option is retained for scripting, but it can expose the password in shell history and process listings. Prefer the hidden prompt or stdin.

Usage of bcrypt:
  -c, -cost int
        bcrypt cost (10-31) (default 13)
  -cc, -clipboard
        copy the bcrypt hash to the clipboard
  -p, -password string
        password to hash (prefer the hidden prompt or stdin)
  -version
        print version information