Question 1

What is PGP encryption?

Accepted Answer

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an encryption standard for emails, files, and data. It uses public-key cryptography — you encrypt a message with someone's public key and they decrypt it with their private key. OpenPGP (RFC 4880) is the open standard that PGP implementations follow.

Question 2

How is PGP different from AES?

Accepted Answer

PGP is a complete cryptographic system for end-to-end communication, while AES is just an encryption algorithm. PGP internally uses AES for the actual encryption (symmetric) but wraps it with RSA or ECC for key exchange (asymmetric), and adds digital signatures for authentication.

Question 3

What format is the public key?

Accepted Answer

PGP public keys are in ASCII-armored format — text blocks starting with -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- and ending with -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----. You can get someone's PGP public key from keyservers, their website, or directly from them.

Question 4

Can I use keys from GPG?

Accepted Answer

Yes — GPG (GnuPG) follows the OpenPGP standard. Keys exported from GPG ('gpg --armor --export email@example.com') work directly with this tool. Messages encrypted here can be decrypted with GPG, and vice versa.

Question 5

What encryption algorithms does this use?

Accepted Answer

This tool uses openpgp.js which follows OpenPGP RFC 4880. For new keys generated via PGP Key Generator, it uses ECC (Curve25519) by default. When encrypting, it uses the algorithms specified in the recipient's public key — typically AES-256 for the message and RSA/ECC for the session key.

Question 6

How do PGP encryption and decryption work?

Accepted Answer

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) uses asymmetric encryption: encrypt with the recipient's public key, decrypt with their private key. For efficiency, PGP actually encrypts the data with a random session key (symmetric AES), then encrypts only the session key with the recipient's RSA/ElGamal public key. This combines the speed of symmetric encryption with the security of asymmetric key exchange.

Question 7

How do I encrypt a message with someone's PGP public key?

Accepted Answer

Paste the recipient's PGP public key (the ASCII-armored block starting -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----) and your message above, then encrypt. Share the encrypted message block — only the holder of the matching private key can decrypt it. Generate your own PGP key pair with DevDecode's PGP Key Generator.

PGP Encrypt Decrypt — Free Online PGP Message Encryption Tool

Frequently Asked Questions

PGP Encryption: End-to-End Privacy for Messages and Files

Standards & References

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PGP Key Generator

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Related Guides

Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption: What's the Difference?

What Is PGP Encryption and How Does It Work?