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The nanoid npm package is a small, secure, URL-friendly, unique string ID generator for JavaScript applications. It is designed to be fast and efficient, producing random or custom ID strings suitable for a variety of applications, including database keys, session identifiers, and more.
Simple ID Generation
Generate a unique, URL-friendly ID. The default ID length is 21 characters, which provides a good balance of speed and uniqueness.
const { nanoid } = require('nanoid');
console.log(nanoid()); // Example output: 'V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT'
Custom Length ID Generation
Generate a unique ID with a custom length. This allows for shorter or longer IDs depending on the level of uniqueness required.
const { nanoid } = require('nanoid');
console.log(nanoid(10)); // Example output: 'IRFa-VaY2b'
Non-secure ID Generation
Generate a non-secure ID with a custom alphabet and length. This is useful for cases where unique IDs are needed without the cryptographic strength.
const { customAlphabet } = require('nanoid');
const nanoid = customAlphabet('1234567890abcdef', 10);
console.log(nanoid()); // Example output: '4f90d13a42'
Custom Alphabet ID Generation
Generate a unique ID using a custom alphabet. This is useful when you need to avoid certain characters or use a specific set of characters for IDs.
const { customAlphabet } = require('nanoid');
const alphabet = '0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
const nanoid = customAlphabet(alphabet, 10);
console.log(nanoid()); // Example output: '4f90d13a42'
The uuid package can generate RFC-compliant UUIDs. It offers different versions of UUIDs, such as v1 (timestamp-based), v4 (random), and others. Compared to nanoid, uuid provides more standardized and structured IDs, but they are not as compact as nanoid's IDs.
Shortid is another package for generating short non-sequential url-friendly unique ids. However, it is no longer recommended for use as it has been deprecated in favor of nanoid, which is more secure and maintains a smaller size.
Uniqid is a package that generates unique IDs based on the current time and an optional prefix or suffix. It is less feature-rich compared to nanoid and does not provide the same level of customization or security.
A tiny, secure, URL-friendly, unique string ID generator for JavaScript.
A-Za-z0-9_-
).
So ID size was reduced from 36 to 21 symbols.var nanoid = require('nanoid')
model.id = nanoid() //=> "V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT"
The generator supports Node.js, React Native, and all browsers.
Nano ID is quite comparable to UUID v4 (random-based). It has a similar number of random bits in the ID (126 in Nano ID and 122 in UUID), so it has a similar collision probability:
For there to be a one in a billion chance of duplication, 103 trillion version 4 IDs must be generated.
There are three main differences between Nano ID and UUID v4:
uuid/v4
package:
141 bytes instead of 435.$ ./test/benchmark
nanoid 693,132 ops/sec
nanoid/generate 624,291 ops/sec
uid.sync 487,706 ops/sec
uuid/v4 471,299 ops/sec
secure-random-string 448,386 ops/sec
shortid 66,809 ops/sec
Async:
nanoid/async 105,024 ops/sec
nanoid/async/generate 106,682 ops/sec
secure-random-string 94,217 ops/sec
uid 92,026 ops/sec
Non-secure:
nanoid/non-secure 2,555,814 ops/sec
rndm 2,413,565 ops/sec
See a good article about random generators theory: Secure random values (in Node.js)
Instead of using the unsafe Math.random()
, Nano ID uses the crypto
module
in Node.js and the Web Crypto API in browsers. These modules use unpredictable
hardware random generator.
random % alphabet
is a popular mistake to make when coding an ID generator.
The spread will not be even; there will be a lower chance for some symbols
to appear compared to others—so it will reduce the number of tries
when brute-forcing.
Nano ID uses a better algorithm and is tested for uniformity.
nanoid-dictionary
with popular alphabets to use with nanoid/generate
.nanoid-cli
to generate ID from CLI.nanoid-good
to be sure that your ID doesn't contain any obscene words.Also, CLI tool is available to generate IDs from a command line.
The main module uses URL-friendly symbols (A-Za-z0-9_-
) and returns an ID
with 21 characters (to have a collision probability similar to UUID v4).
const nanoid = require('nanoid')
model.id = nanoid() //=> "Uakgb_J5m9g-0JDMbcJqLJ"
If you want to reduce ID length (and increase collisions probability), you can pass the length as an argument.
nanoid(10) //=> "IRFa-VaY2b"
Don’t forget to check the safety of your ID length in our ID collision probability calculator.
Do not use a nanoid for key
prop. In React key
should be consistence
between renders. This is bad code:
<Item key={nanoid()} /> /* DON’T DO IT */
This is good code. Note, that we added "input"
string in front of id
,
because Nano ID could be started from number. HTML ID can’t be started
from the number.
id = 'input' + nanoid()
render () {
return <>
<label htmlFor={this.id}>Label text</label>
<input id={this.id} type="text"/>
</>;
}
}
To generate secure random IDs in React Native, you must use a native random generator and asynchronous API:
const generateSecureRandom = require('react-native-securerandom').generateSecureRandom
const format = require('nanoid/async/format')
const url = require('nanoid/url')
async function createUser () {
user.id = await format(generateSecureRandom, url, 21);
}
const mySchema = new Schema({
_id: {
type: String,
default: () => nanoid(10)
}
})
Web Workers don’t have access to a secure random generator.
Security is important in IDs, when IDs should be unpredictable. For instance, in “access by URL” link generation.
If you don’t need unpredictable IDs, but you need Web Workers support, you can use non‑secure ID generator.
const nanoid = require('nanoid/non-secure')
model.id = nanoid() //=> "Uakgb_J5m9g-0JDMbcJqLJ"
To generate hardware random bytes, CPU will collect electromagnetic noise. During the collection, CPU doesn’t work.
If we will use asynchronous API for random generator, another code could be executed during the entropy collection.
const nanoid = require('nanoid/async')
async function createUser () {
user.id = await nanoid()
}
Unfortunately, you will not have any benefits in a browser, since Web Crypto API doesn’t have asynchronous API.
If you want to change the ID's alphabet or length
you can use the low-level generate
module.
const generate = require('nanoid/generate')
model.id = generate('1234567890abcdef', 10) //=> "4f90d13a42"
Check the safety of your custom alphabet and ID length
in our ID collision probability calculator.
You can find popular alphabets in nanoid-dictionary
.
Alphabet must contain 256 symbols or less. Otherwise, the generator will not be secure.
Asynchronous and non-secure API is also available:
const generate = require('nanoid/async/generate')
async function createUser () {
user.id = await generate('1234567890abcdef', 10)
}
const generate = require('nanoid/non-secure/generate')
user.id = generate('1234567890abcdef', 10)
You can replace the default safe random generator using the format
module.
For instance, to use a seed-based generator.
const format = require('nanoid/format')
function random (size) {
const result = []
for (let i = 0; i < size; i++) {
result.push(randomByte())
}
return result
}
format(random, "abcdef", 10) //=> "fbaefaadeb"
random
callback must accept the array size and return an array
with random numbers.
If you want to use the same URL-friendly symbols with format
,
you can get the default alphabet from the url
file.
const url = require('nanoid/url')
format(random, url, 10) //=> "93ce_Ltuub"
Asynchronous API is also available:
const format = require('nanoid/async/format')
const url = require('nanoid/url')
function random (size) {
return new Promise(…)
}
async function createUser () {
user.id = await format(random, url, 10)
}
FAQs
A tiny (116 bytes), secure URL-friendly unique string ID generator
The npm package nanoid receives a total of 31,924,683 weekly downloads. As such, nanoid popularity was classified as popular.
We found that nanoid demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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