nanoid

Tiny, secure, URL-friendly unique string ID generator — 130 bytes, no dependencies, cryptographically strong.

nanoid

General JS

Tiny, secure, URL-friendly unique string ID generator — 130 bytes, no dependencies, cryptographically strong.

npm GitHub Docs

Fit

Bundle (gzip)

517 B

853 B raw

Install size includes transitive dependencies. Bundle size is gzipped browser payload.

Freshness

The Problem

Math.random() is not cryptographically secure and UUID v4 generates long, hyphenated strings that are bulky in URLs and databases. You need short, secure, URL-safe IDs.

What It Does

Nanoid uses the crypto module (Node) or crypto.getRandomValues (browser) to generate cryptographically random IDs. The default 21-character alphabet (A-Za-z0-9_-) produces IDs with the same collision probability as UUID v4 at 1/3rd the length. Custom alphabets and sizes are supported.

Installation

bash

npm install nanoid

Usage Example

typescript

import { nanoid, customAlphabet } from 'nanoid';

// Default: 21 character URL-safe ID
const id = nanoid(); // 'V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT'

// Custom size
const shortId = nanoid(10); // 'IRFa-VaY2b'

// Custom alphabet (e.g., digits only)
const numericId = customAlphabet('1234567890', 8);
numericId(); // '39124817'

// Use in database inserts
const user = await db.insert(users).values({ id: nanoid(), name: 'Alice' });

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