Why does my Electrum seed show as invalid in other wallets?

Because Electrum doesn't use BIP39. It has its own seed standard with a different validity check, so a BIP39 wallet (MetaMask, Ledger Live, Trust Wallet) rejects an Electrum seed as invalid. The words are fine — they just belong to a different format.

How do I know if I have an Electrum seed?

An Electrum seed is valid when HMAC-SHA512 of the phrase starts with a version prefix: 01 (standard), 100 (SegWit), 101 (2FA), or 102 (2FA SegWit). Our Validate tab checks this automatically and tells you the type plus its first addresses.

Can I restore an Electrum seed into a BIP39 wallet?

Generally no — a BIP39 wallet won't accept it, and the derivation differs. Restore an Electrum seed in Electrum itself. You can use our tool to confirm it's a valid Electrum seed and to see the addresses it produces.

What's the difference between Electrum standard and SegWit seeds?

They use different derivation paths and address types. A standard (legacy) Electrum seed produces P2PKH addresses (1…) at m/0/i; a SegWit Electrum seed produces native SegWit addresses (bc1…) at m/0'/0/i. The seed's version prefix tells them apart.

Electrum Seed Recovery: Why It's Not BIP39

If your recovery phrase keeps getting rejected as "invalid" by wallet after wallet — but you're sure you copied it correctly — there's a good chance you have an Electrum seed, not a BIP39 one. They look similar (a list of English words) but they are different standards under the hood.

Our Validate tool now detects Electrum seeds automatically and shows their addresses — entirely in your browser.

Electrum is its own standard

Most wallets use BIP39. Electrum predates BIP39's dominance and uses its own seed format. The practical consequences:

A BIP39 wallet (MetaMask, Ledger Live, Trust Wallet) will say an Electrum seed is invalid — because it fails BIP39's checksum, which Electrum seeds were never built to pass.
The two formats turn words into a wallet differently, so you can't simply move an Electrum seed into a BIP39 wallet and expect the same addresses.

The words aren't wrong. They're speaking a different language.

How Electrum validates a seed

Instead of BIP39's per-word checksum, Electrum checks the whole phrase with a hash. A phrase is a valid Electrum seed when HMAC-SHA512("Seed version", phrase) begins with a version prefix:

Prefix	Electrum wallet type
`01`	Standard (legacy)
`100`	SegWit
`101`	2FA
`102`	2FA SegWit

This is also how you can tell which kind of Electrum wallet you have. Our tool runs exactly this check and reports the type.

How Electrum derives addresses

Two more differences from BIP39:

The seed stretch. Electrum derives its wallet seed with PBKDF2 using an "electrum" salt (BIP39 uses "mnemonic"). Same algorithm, different salt — so the same words produce a different master key.
The paths. A standard Electrum wallet uses m/0/i and produces legacy 1… addresses. A SegWit Electrum wallet uses m/0'/0/i and produces native SegWit bc1… addresses.

(2FA wallets are 2-of-3 multisig, so a single seed alone doesn't produce a spendable address — you'd restore them in Electrum with the second factor.)

How to identify and restore your Electrum seed

Open the Validate tab and paste your phrase.
If it's an Electrum seed, the tool tells you the type (standard / SegWit / 2FA) and shows the first addresses it derives — confirm one matches your wallet.
To actually spend, restore the seed in Electrum (File → New/Restore → "I already have a seed"). Electrum is the wallet that understands its own format.

If the tool says it's not an Electrum seed and your BIP39 wallet also rejects it, then it's a BIP39 phrase with an error — head to the "invalid recovery phrase" guide.

A note on old Electrum seeds

Very old Electrum wallets (pre-2.0) used yet another format (a different word list, or raw hex). Those are rarer; if your phrase isn't recognized as a modern Electrum seed, it may be an old-style one that only old Electrum versions restore.

Stay safe

Identify and restore offline when you can.
Never share your seed or paste it into a tool that transmits it — see is it safe to enter your seed phrase online.
After recovering on an online device, move funds to a fresh wallet.

Not every "invalid" phrase is broken — sometimes it's just Electrum. Identify the format first, and the path forward gets clear. For the bigger picture, see what is a seed phrase.

Check your seed format →