Why convert PEM to PPK?
PuTTY, the popular SSH client for Windows, stores private keys in its own .ppk format and cannot read OpenSSH .pem keys directly. AWS and most cloud providers issue a .pem key; converting it to .ppk is the standard step before using PuTTY to connect.
How to convert PEM to PPK
PuTTYgen FREE
Click Load, switch the filter to All Files, open the .pem, then click Save private key and save as .ppk. PuTTYgen is FREE and included in the standard PuTTY installer from putty.org.
About these formats
.PEM
PEM - Base64-encoded certificate / key container (X.509, PKCS)
A PEM file is a text container for cryptographic data - most often an SSL/TLS certificate, a private key, or both. Open it in any text editor to see what the BEGIN line says, then use…
Open .PEM details →
.PPK
PuTTY Private Key File
A PPK file is a PuTTY Private Key file - it holds an SSH key pair used to authenticate to remote servers. On Windows, open and manage it with PuTTYgen (free). On Linux or macOS, convert it…
Open .PPK details →Quality & what to watch
- The
.pemmust be a private key file (-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----or-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----) - a certificate (-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----) cannot be converted to.ppk. - Never upload your
.pemprivate key to an online converter - it is equivalent to a server password; run this conversion locally only. - PuTTY 0.75 and later use PPK version 3 by default; if you need to connect with an older PuTTY client, export PPK v2 from PuTTYgen's Key menu.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I download PuTTYgen?
.exe from the same download page.Why can't I see my `.pem` file in the PuTTYgen file picker?
Can I convert a `.ppk` back to PEM format?
.ppk in PuTTYgen, go to Conversions > Export OpenSSH key, and save the result.Do I need to convert to PPK if I use OpenSSH on Windows?
.pem keys natively with ssh -i key.pem user@host.
