Free Image Steganography Tool: Hide and Extract Encrypted Messages
PixCrypt lets you encrypt a message or file with a password and hide the encrypted data inside an image. Encryption and extraction are free, with no account required. The tool processes your content in your browser.
How to hide a message in an image
- Open PixCrypt and choose Text Mode and Encode (Hide).
- Enter your message and select a PNG or JPEG cover image.
- Enter a strong password, or generate one and save it securely.
- Choose Encrypt & Embed, then download the resulting PNG.
- Share the original PNG file. Give your recipient the password through a separate trusted channel.
For a document, choose File Mode instead. The processing limit is 50MB, but the image usually holds much less. For example, a 1920 × 1080 image has roughly 760KB of embedding capacity before encryption overhead. Compression can help, but does not guarantee a file will fit.
How to extract the message
- Choose Decode (Extract).
- Select the original PNG produced by PixCrypt.
- Enter the same password and choose Extract & Decrypt.
- Read the message or download the recovered file.
Why might extraction fail?
- Wrong password: the original password is required; there is no password reset for an encrypted image.
- Changed image: resizing, editing, taking a screenshot or converting the PNG to JPEG can destroy hidden data.
- Messaging compression: share the PNG as an original file or document, rather than a compressed photo.
- Different tool: this decoder expects PixCrypt’s format; it is not a universal steganography detector.
Transparent cover images are flattened onto a white background during encoding to preserve the embedded data when saved.
What is the difference between encryption and steganography?
Encryption makes content unreadable without the key. Steganography hides data inside another file. PixCrypt combines AES-256-GCM encryption with image steganography. Hiding content does not guarantee that its presence cannot be detected.
Keep a backup of important originals and test extraction before relying on a shared image.