AES Text Encryption

What this tool does

AES Text Encryption encrypts or decrypts text with a password-derived AES-256-GCM key (via PBKDF2-SHA256 with a configurable iteration count), producing a portable, ASCII-armored block, using only the browser’s native Web Crypto API, entirely client-side.

Sometimes you need to share sensitive text, a note, a credential, a private message, through a channel you don’t fully trust, without setting up a dedicated secure messaging system just for one message.

This tool encrypts text with a password using AES-256-GCM (an authenticated cipher that also detects tampering), with the encryption key derived from your password via PBKDF2-SHA256 using a configurable, deliberately high iteration count to slow down password-guessing attacks, all using the browser’s native Web Crypto API — nothing you type or encrypt is ever sent anywhere.

How to use AES Text Encryption

1. Choose Encrypt or Decrypt mode.
2. Enter the Password (share this with the recipient through a separate channel).
3. For encryption, optionally adjust PBKDF2 iterations.
4. Enter the text to encrypt, or paste an encrypted block to decrypt.
5. Press Encrypt or Decrypt and copy the result.

Tips for better results

• Share the password through a different channel than the encrypted text itself (e.g. send the encrypted block by email, the password by text message), so that intercepting one channel alone isn’t enough to read the message.
• There is no password recovery; if the password is lost, the encrypted text is permanently unreadable, this is intentional and is what makes the encryption meaningful.
• A higher PBKDF2 iteration count makes password-guessing attacks against the encrypted block slower, at the cost of a very slightly slower encrypt/decrypt operation on your own device, the default (600,000) is a strong, modern baseline.
• The output is "armored", wrapped in ASCII-safe BEGIN/END markers, so it can be safely pasted into email, chat, or any plain-text channel without corruption.

Common use cases

• Sharing a sensitive note or credential through an untrusted or semi-trusted channel.
• Encrypting text before storing it somewhere you don’t fully control.
• Learning how password-based AES-GCM encryption works end-to-end.
• Creating a simple, dependency-free way to password-protect a piece of text for personal use.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Sending the password through the exact same channel as the encrypted text; that defeats the purpose, since anyone intercepting the message also gets the key to unlock it.
• Using a weak, short, or reused password to protect the encryption, the encryption algorithm is only as strong as the password used to derive its key.
• Expecting password recovery if it’s forgotten; there is deliberately no backdoor or recovery mechanism, losing the password means losing the data.