A friend asks for your Wi-Fi password. You typed it once, three years ago, on a phone you no longer own. The sticker on the back of the router has been rubbed down to a smudge. You open the router app, find nothing, and give up — then remember that the laptop on the coffee table is connected to that very network right now.
That laptop knows the password. Every device you’ve ever connected to Wi-Fi keeps the password stored, so it can rejoin the network automatically. The screen just doesn’t show it to you without asking first. Retrieving it is a matter of knowing where each system hides the “show me” button — and each one puts it somewhere slightly different.
Your device knows the password — it’s just not showing it
This works for a simple reason: your phone or computer has to send that password to the router every time it reconnects, so it’s sitting in the device’s saved networks either way. What you’re really doing is asking the device to reveal something it already has.
One condition applies throughout: the device must have joined the network at least once. No device can reveal a password it never learned. And expect a lock screen, fingerprint, or administrator prompt at the reveal step — systems guard these details for good reason, since anyone who can see the password can join the network.
Start with whichever device is already connected. You don’t need the router, a cable, or an app.
On an iPhone or iPad: a tap on the password field
If your iPhone runs iOS 16 or newer — most iPhones in use today do — Apple keeps the password one tap away, per Apple’s own support documentation.
Open Settings → Wi-Fi, tap the info button (the little i in a circle) next to the network you’re connected to, then tap the Password field. Your iPhone asks for Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode, and the password appears in plain text. Tap Copy to paste it elsewhere — a laptop, a smart TV, a friend’s phone.
It works for networks you’re no longer near, too. In Settings → Wi-Fi, tap Edit in the top-right corner, authenticate, and you’ll see the list of networks the phone has joined before. Tap the info button next to any of them to reveal its password. On iOS 18 and later, the same list lives in the Passwords app: open it, tap Wi-Fi, tap the network, tap the Password field.
Running something older than iOS 16? The on-device view doesn’t exist — that was Apple’s addition with iOS 16. Check the router’s sticker or use another device instead.
On Android: the Share button shows it (usually)
Since Android 10, Google has included a built-in way to view and share saved Wi-Fi passwords — no rooting, no third-party apps.
Open Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi and tap Saved networks (on Samsung phones the path is Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi — manufacturers rearrange the menus, but the pieces are the same). Select the network, tap Share, and unlock the phone with your fingerprint, PIN, or pattern.
What you’ll see is a QR code — and on most phones, including Google Pixels, the password printed in plain text directly below it. If your phone shows only the QR code (some older Samsung models do), you’re not stuck: point another phone’s camera at it, or run it through Google Lens, and the password comes back as readable text.
Handy side effect: the QR code itself is a way to share the network. Anyone can point their phone’s camera at your screen and join without typing a thing — useful when the password is thirty random characters long.
On Windows: the password behind a familiar checkbox
Windows buries this one a few clicks deep, but it has worked the same way for years.
On Windows 11: open Settings, go to Network & internet → Advanced network settings → More network adapter options. Right-click your Wi-Fi adapter, choose Status, then click Wireless Properties. On the Security tab, tick Show characters — the password appears in the Network security key field.
On Windows 10 the route is nearly identical: Settings → Network & Internet → Status → Network and Sharing Center, click the Wi-Fi network name under Connections, then Wireless Properties → Security → Show characters.
That covers the network you’re connected to now. For one you joined in the past, Windows keeps a stored profile, and a quick command reads it: open Command Prompt and type netsh wlan show profiles to list every saved network, then netsh wlan show profile name="YourNetworkName" key=clear — the password shows up under Key Content in the security settings section.
Two things to know: you’ll generally need an administrator account, and if the machine belongs to work or school, its policies may block the reveal entirely. That’s the IT department’s call, not a bug.
On a Mac: it’s sitting in your keychain
Macs store Wi-Fi passwords in Keychain, the system that also holds your saved website passwords.
Open Keychain Access (in Applications → Utilities), search for the name of the Wi-Fi network, and double-click the entry. Tick Show password and enter your Mac’s administrator password when asked — the key appears.
If you use iCloud Keychain, this goes further than the one machine: saved Wi-Fi passwords sync across every Apple device signed into the same Apple ID. A password your iPhone joined years ago may well be retrievable from the Mac on your desk, and vice versa.
When none of your devices knows the password
Sometimes the answer isn’t on any screen — a reset network list, a phone that never joined, a network you connected to years ago on a device that’s gone. Three fallbacks, in order of effort:
Check the router itself. Most internet providers print the default Wi-Fi name and password on a sticker on the back or underside of the router. This only helps if nobody changed the password after installation — but if you never changed it, this is the fastest answer. While you’re there, check that you’re looking at the password for the network you’re actually joining: most home routers broadcast two networks with near-identical names, and the sticker may list both.
Check the router’s admin panel. Logging into the router’s settings page (usually through an address printed on that same sticker) shows the current Wi-Fi password and lets you change it. The login is often the default printed on the device — change that too while you’re in there.
Ask whoever set it up. The landlord, the person in the flat who ordered the broadband, the office manager. Somebody set this network up, and they either know the password or know who does.
Share it smart, then never hunt for it again
A quick word on what not to do: don’t text the password to a group chat or leave it on a sticky note by the front door. The phone-to-phone tricks above — the iPhone’s nearby share prompt, Android’s QR code — hand the connection to a guest without broadcasting the password to everyone who overhears it. If your router offers it, a guest network is the safer way to hand out Wi-Fi access to visitors: they get online, and your main network — and everything on it — stays private.
And the lasting fix: the next time you type a Wi-Fi password, save it in a password manager alongside your logins. Password managers exist precisely so you never have to go sticker-hunting again — and unlike a scrap of paper, they sync to the next phone you’ll own in three years.
