Passkeys explained: how they work and when to use them

Passkeys are the replacement for passwords that the industry has been building toward for years. In 2026, they’re supported by most major platforms and many high-traffic sites. Here’s what they actually are and when to use them.

What a passkey is

A passkey is a cryptographic key pair: a private key stored on your device and a public key registered with the website. When you log in, the site sends a challenge, your device signs it with the private key, and the site verifies the signature with your public key.

No password is ever sent over the network. There’s nothing for a phishing site to capture.

The underlying standard is FIDO2/WebAuthn. “Passkey” is the consumer-friendly name for a resident credential stored in a FIDO2 authenticator. If you want the mechanism rather than the summary, how passkeys work, step by step walks through both ceremonies, what is actually signed, and the flag bits a site reads on every login.

Why passkeys are phishing-resistant

A passkey credential is bound to the origin — the exact domain where it was registered. When you registered your Google passkey at accounts.google.com, the origin is cryptographically embedded in the credential.

When an attacker sets up accounts-g00gle.com and tricks you into visiting it, the browser’s WebAuthn implementation checks the origin. It won’t sign a challenge for a domain that doesn’t match the registered origin. The passkey cannot be used on a phishing site — not even by the attacker.

This is the core property that passwords and TOTP codes don’t have. A phishing site can relay your password and TOTP code in real time. It cannot relay a passkey authentication.

Where passkeys are stored

Passkeys can be stored in:

• Platform authenticators: your device’s secure element (iPhone Secure Enclave, Android Titan M chip, Windows Hello TPM). Sync via iCloud Keychain (Apple) or Google Password Manager (Android/Chrome).
• Password managers: 1Password, Bitwarden, and Dashlane support storing passkeys in their vaults, enabling cross-platform use without being locked into Apple or Google’s ecosystem.
• Hardware security keys: YubiKey 5 series supports FIDO2 resident credentials (passkeys). Device-bound; does not sync.

The device-bound case is the strongest of the three and also the most fiddly, since losing the key with no backup registered locks you out. Which model to buy and how to enroll a spare is covered in the guide to using a YubiKey as your vault’s second factor.

Support in 2026

Sites and services with passkey support:

• Google, Apple ID, Microsoft accounts
• GitHub
• PayPal
• Adobe
• Shopify
• 1Password, Bitwarden (vault logins)
• Most major banks (varies by country/institution)

OS and browser support:

• iOS 16+ / macOS Ventura+: full passkey support via iCloud Keychain
• Android 9+ (with Play Services): full passkey support via Google Password Manager
• Windows 11 22H2+: Windows Hello passkey support
• Chrome 108+, Safari 16+, Firefox 122+: WebAuthn support

Passkeys vs TOTP 2FA

	Passkeys	TOTP
Phishing resistant	Yes	No
Brute-force resistant	Yes	Partially (30s window)
Works offline	Yes (device-bound)	Yes
Lost device recovery	Via sync/backup	Backup codes
Setup complexity	Low-medium	Low
Site support	Growing, not universal	Wide

If a site offers passkeys: use them. If not: use TOTP over SMS.

Passkeys and password managers

If you store passkeys in your platform authenticator (iCloud Keychain / Google), they’re only usable on that ecosystem’s devices. That is the same lock-in problem the browser-saved passwords versus a dedicated manager comparison covers, now applied to credentials you cannot simply re-type on the other platform.

Storing passkeys in your password manager (1Password, Bitwarden) decouples them from a single ecosystem. You can use a passkey registered in 1Password on any device where 1Password is installed. This is the right approach if you use mixed platforms, and the Bitwarden versus 1Password comparison covers how the two differ once the vault is holding your passkeys rather than just passwords.

How to start using passkeys

1. Check if your password manager supports passkeys — 1Password and Bitwarden do as of 2026.
2. Register a passkey on Google/Apple ID first — high-value targets, well-implemented.
3. For each site that offers passkeys: register one and delete the password entry.
4. Keep your old password as a fallback until you’re confident the passkey flow works on all your devices.

The transition is gradual. Don’t delete passwords for sites until you’ve verified passkey login works end-to-end on your primary devices.

What passkeys don’t protect against

• Compromised device — if your device is compromised by malware, an attacker may be able to use stored credentials directly.
• Account recovery flows — many sites let you recover via email/phone even with passkeys. If your email is compromised, passkeys on downstream accounts don’t help.
• Sites that haven’t implemented it — for sites without passkey support, you still need a strong unique password.

Passkeys are a significant improvement. They’re not a silver bullet. For everything they do not cover, the password security fundamentals guide is the baseline that still has to hold.