To provide a hand dryer that can prevent leakage of high-pressure air and scattering of water drops and shorten drying time, despite having a compact size.

The hand dryer 1 is provided with discharge nozzles respectively above and below a hand insertion area 10, an upper exhaust duct 5, which connects from a high-pressure air generator 2 to the upper discharge nozzle N1, a lower exhaust duct 6, which connects from the high-pressure air generator to the lower discharge nozzle N2, and as air intake ports a first air intake port 18, which draws atmospheric air from the outside of the device, and a second air intake port 11, which draws in air inside the hand insertion area 10, wherein an air intake duct 3 is equipped with an air intake path 13 that connects the first air intake port 18 and the second air intake port 11, and a switching damper 17 is disposed in the air intake path, and the switching damper 17 switches to connect one or the other of the first air intake port 18 or second air intake port 11 to the air intake duct 3.