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password managers guide

Password Length Beats Clever Punctuation

Sam OkonkwoSam Okonkwo· Security Researcher· Updated December 11, 2025· 9 min read

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Quick take

Use the generator. Prefer length. Avoid sites that still cap you at eight characters when you can. RoboForm currently includes a generator. So do Bitwarden and 1Password. Confirm live character sets. Do not invent a system you will reuse.

Clever is how stuffing wins

Summer2024! on ten sites is one leak. A unique 20-character string you never saw is one site.

NIST has been telling verifiers to stop arbitrary monthly resets. You still change a secret when that site is in a dump. The generator makes the new one cheap.

From the record

You remember the master password. The manager remembers everything else.

GUIDEORA rule for generators

A boring default

Start at 16–20 random characters unless the site forbids it. Include the character classes the site requires. Save immediately. Do not edit the result to make it 'memorable.'

A password length slider next to a short clever password
The slider is the product. The emoji password is a joke.

Length

The main lever

Reuse

The actual failure

Reset ritual

Only after a leak

Memory

Master only

  • Email and banking get the longest the site allows.
  • Old forums can wait. They still get unique strings.
  • Passphrases are fine for the master. Not for every shop.
  • RoboForm currently captures generated passwords as you go.

RoboForm as the generator you will actually use

A generator you never open is a brochure. RoboForm currently puts generate-and-save in the same motion as a login. That is why it is featured. Confirm the live slider defaults.

The generator does not fix a reused master password.

Pros

  • +Unique secrets become the default
  • +You stop inventing patterns
  • +Length is cheaper than cleverness

Cons

  • −Some sites still cap length like it is 2009
  • −People will shorten the result
  • −A generator in a notes app is not a vault

Slide right. Save. Leave.

Generate long unique secrets. RoboForm is the example. GUIDEORA does not know your slider.

Editor take

Length is the habit

Use the generator. Prefer length. RoboForm is a fair house for that motion. Confirm live.

See RoboForm's current plan