Length in bits, hex characters and bytes for different key lengths of typical symmetric encryption methods:
| Bit length (2^n) | n | Number of bytes (bit length: 8) | Number of hex characters (bit length: 4) | Example |
| 32 | 5 | 4 | 8 | |
| 56 | 7 | 14 | DES | |
| 64 | 6 | 8 | 16 | RC4 |
| 112 | 14 | 28 | Triple-DES | |
| 128 | 7 | 16 | 31 | IDEA, AES |
| 196 | 24 | 48 | AES | |
| 256 | 8 | 32 | 64 | AES |