Paste your full public key (e.g. from ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)
Try sample:
Ready to parse
Paste an SSH public key and click Parse Key// parse ssh public keys, fingerprints & metadata in one click
Parse and analyze SSH public keys instantly. Identify key type, fingerprint (MD5 & SHA256), comment, bit length, and encoded key data — free and browser-based.
Ready to parse
Paste an SSH public key and click Parse KeyRun cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (or your key file) in a terminal to display your SSH public key.
Copy the full key line and paste it into the input field. Click Parse Key to analyze.
Inspect the key type, bit strength, fingerprints (MD5 & SHA256), comment, and raw base64 data.
An SSH Public Key Parser reads the components of an SSH public key file: the algorithm type (RSA, Ed25519, ECDSA, DSA), the base64-encoded key data, and the optional comment. It also derives the fingerprint — a short hash used to uniquely identify a key — and the bit length for RSA/DSA keys to indicate cryptographic strength.
Yes. SSH public keys are designed to be shared openly — they are placed in authorized_keys on servers, GitHub profiles, and CI systems. This tool processes everything client-side in your browser; no data is transmitted or stored.
This parser supports all major SSH key types: RSA (ssh-rsa), Ed25519 (ssh-ed25519), ECDSA (ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, nistp384, nistp521), and DSA (ssh-dss). It also handles OpenSSH certificate types.
A fingerprint is a short hash derived from the key data, used to identify a key without exposing it fully. SSH commonly uses SHA256 (shown as base64) and MD5 (shown as colon-separated hex). GitHub and most SSH servers display SHA256 fingerprints.
The comment is the optional third field in an SSH public key (e.g., user@hostname). It has no cryptographic significance — it's just a label to help you identify which key belongs to which user or machine. You can change it without affecting key validity.
Modern best practice recommends at least 3072 bits for RSA keys, with 4096 bits being common for extra longevity. Keys of 1024 bits are considered insecure and should be replaced. Consider switching to Ed25519 for equivalent security with much shorter keys.
Ed25519 uses elliptic curve cryptography to provide strong security (equivalent to RSA-3072) in a much smaller key. It's faster to generate, verify, and sign, and less susceptible to implementation bugs. All modern SSH clients (OpenSSH 6.5+) support it.
MD5 fingerprints are the older format, displayed as 16 colon-separated hex pairs. SHA256 fingerprints are the modern default in OpenSSH 6.8+, displayed as base64 with a SHA256: prefix. Both uniquely identify the same key — SHA256 is more collision-resistant.
No — this tool only parses public keys (the .pub file). Never paste your private key into any web tool. Your private key should remain exclusively on your machine and be protected with a passphrase.
An SSH public key parser is a tool that reads and decodes the structured data inside an SSH public key file. When you generate an SSH key pair with ssh-keygen, the resulting .pub file contains three space-separated fields: the algorithm identifier, the base64-encoded key blob, and an optional comment. A parser breaks these apart and further decodes the binary key data to extract detailed metadata — including the precise key type, cryptographic parameters, and bit strength.
This tool goes further by computing the key's fingerprint in both MD5 and SHA256 formats, which lets you verify that a key on a remote server matches the one on your local machine — a critical step for preventing man-in-the-middle attacks during first-time connections.
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There are four main SSH key types you'll encounter in the wild, each with different security characteristics:
A key fingerprint is a short, human-verifiable representation of a public key. It is generated by hashing the raw key bytes with MD5 or SHA256, then encoding the result. Fingerprints serve several important purposes:
The MD5 fingerprint format looks like 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48. The SHA256 format looks like SHA256:nThbg6kXUpJWGl7E1IGOCspRomTxdCARLviKw6E5SY8. You can verify either using ssh-keygen -l -E md5 -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub on the command line.
An SSH public key in its standard OpenSSH format is a single text line. Let's break down a typical RSA key:
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAA...AQAB user@hostnameIf you don't yet have an SSH key or need to generate a new one, use the ssh-keygen command that comes with OpenSSH:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your@email.com"ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521 -C "your@email.com"Always protect your private key with a strong passphrase. The public key (the .pub file) is the one you share — with GitHub, remote servers, and tools like this parser.
SSH keys are only as secure as the practices around them. A few important guidelines:
.pub file should leave your machine.