NanoID Generator

NanoID Generator

Generate tiny, secure, URL-friendly unique identifiers

Standard UUIDs
Modern Alternatives

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Click "Generate" to create UUIDs

UUID v4

Random UUIDs. Most commonly used for general purposes.

UUID v7

Time-ordered and random. Best for databases and sorting.

ULID

Sortable 26-char IDs. Perfect for distributed systems.

NanoID

Compact 21-char URL-safe IDs. Great for frontend use.

Example NanoID Output:V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT

What is NanoID?

NanoID is a tiny, secure, URL-friendly unique string ID generator. At just 21 characters using a 64-character alphabet (A-Za-z0-9_-), NanoID is 40% shorter than UUID while providing equivalent collision resistance with 126 bits of entropy.

Created as a modern alternative to UUID, NanoID focuses on practical developer needs: no special characters requiring URL encoding, no dependencies, and blazing fast generation using hardware random number generators.

Why Use NanoID?

NanoID shines in frontend applications and URLs where every character counts. The default 21-character IDs are short enough for manual copying while remaining statistically unique. The URL-safe alphabet means no encoding headaches.

Performance is exceptional—NanoID is 60% faster than UUID v4 in JavaScript. The small library size (130 bytes) makes it perfect for browser bundles where every kilobyte matters.

How NanoID Works

NanoID generation:

1. Generate 21 random bytes using CSPRNG 2. Map each byte to one of 64 URL-safe characters (A-Za-z0-9_-) 3. Return the resulting 21-character string

The 64-character alphabet with 21 characters provides ~126 bits of entropy: log2(64^21) ≈ 126.

Common Use Cases

  • Short URLs and link shorteners
  • Frontend-generated IDs
  • Mobile applications with size constraints
  • Public-facing identifiers in URLs

Pro Tip

Customize NanoID length for your collision tolerance: 10 chars for millions of IDs, 21 for billions.

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