Last Updated: 3/9/2026

Node.js

Nano ID works seamlessly in Node.js with both ESM and CommonJS.

Requirements

Node.js 18+ (recommended)
Node.js 20+ for require() with experimental flag
Node.js 22.12+ for require() out-of-the-box

ESM (Recommended)

Setup

Add to package.json:


{
  "type": "module"
}

Usage


import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'
 
const id = nanoid()
console.log(id) //=> "V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT"

CommonJS

Node.js 22.12+


const { nanoid } = require('nanoid')
 
const id = nanoid()
console.log(id) //=> "V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT"

Node.js 20

Use experimental flag:


node --experimental-require-module script.js


const { nanoid } = require('nanoid')

Node.js 18

Use dynamic import:


let nanoid
 
async function generateId() {
  if (!nanoid) {
    ({ nanoid } = await import('nanoid'))
  }
  return nanoid()
}
 
module.exports = { generateId }

Random Generation

Nano ID uses Node.js’s crypto module:


import { webcrypto as crypto } from 'node:crypto'
 
crypto.getRandomValues(buffer)
// Uses OS-level CSPRNG:
// - Linux: /dev/urandom
// - macOS: SecRandomCopyBytes
// - Windows: BCryptGenRandom

Performance

Node.js version uses pooled random generation:


// Efficient: 128 IDs per system call
const ids = Array(128).fill(null).map(() => nanoid())
// Only 1 call to crypto.getRandomValues()

Benchmark: ~3.7M ops/sec on modern hardware.

Use Cases

Express Server


import express from 'express'
import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'
 
const app = express()
 
app.post('/users', async (req, res) => {
  const user = {
    id: nanoid(),
    ...req.body,
    createdAt: new Date()
  }
  
  await db.users.insert(user)
  res.json(user)
})

Database IDs


import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'
import { MongoClient } from 'mongodb'
 
const client = new MongoClient(url)
const db = client.db('myapp')
 
await db.collection('users').insertOne({
  _id: nanoid(),
  email: 'user@example.com'
})

File Names


import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'
import { writeFile } from 'fs/promises'
 
const filename = `upload-${nanoid()}.jpg`
await writeFile(filename, buffer)