When to use a 32-character password
Most accounts are safe with 16 random characters. A Fort Knox password is for the few places where you want a margin that will never be in question: an administrator or root account, a database superuser, an encrypted backup or the export of a password vault.
At 32 characters drawn from 87 options, each password has about 206 bits of entropy. Not even every computer on Earth working together could search that space. The weak point becomes how you store it, not how it was made.
Storing something this long
- Paste it into your password manager and let autofill handle it. Nobody should type 32 random characters by hand.
- If it protects an encrypted backup, keep an offline copy, such as printed and stored in a safe. Losing it means losing the data.
- If a system caps password length, check the limit first. Some older software silently cuts long passwords short.
Frequently asked questions
Is 32 characters overkill?
For a normal website login, yes, but it costs nothing when a password manager does the typing. For passwords that protect data at rest or many other accounts, the extra margin is worth having.
Can I make it even longer?
Yes. The length slider in the options goes up to 128 characters.