Nano ID Generator
Create URL-friendly, deterministic Nano ID-style strings with a selectable length for fixtures and prototypes.
Also known as: short id · compact id
seeded · synthetic data
Presets
Output
About this tool, tips & examples
What it does
The Nano ID Generator creates compact, URL-safe identifier strings in the Nano ID style — the popular short alternative to UUIDs. Choose any length from 1 to 128 characters (21 is the library default), generate up to 1,000 at once, and reuse a seed to regenerate the same IDs for stable fixtures.
Common use cases
- API examples and docs — short IDs that read better in sample URLs than 36-character UUIDs.
- Test fixtures — seeded ID columns that stay identical across test runs and machines.
- Prototype URLs — slug-like identifiers for share links and routes during development.
- Database seeds — compact keys for demo datasets.
Settings
- Length — 1 to 128 characters; 21 matches the standard Nano ID default (~126 bits), shorter trades collision resistance for brevity.
- How many — 1 to 1,000 IDs per run (presets for short, long, and bulk).
- Seed — identical seed + settings = identical IDs.
Privacy note
IDs are generated locally in your browser and never uploaded. These are
seeded, reproducible fixtures — for production IDs use the actual
nanoid library, and for security tokens use the Secure Token Generator,
never anything seeded.
FAQ
What’s the difference between Nano ID and UUID? Both are random identifiers; Nano ID packs similar entropy into ~21 URL-safe characters versus UUID’s 36 with hyphens. UUIDs win on standardization; Nano IDs on compactness.
How short is too short? Collision risk grows fast below ~10 characters at scale. For fixtures it rarely matters; for real systems, keep the default 21 unless you’ve done the math.
Are these safe as session tokens? No — seeded output is reproducible by design. Real Nano IDs from the library use crypto randomness, and secrets should come from the Secure Token Generator.