shortuuid
A generator library for concise, unambiguous and URL-safe UUIDs.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. shortuuid is lightweight (no dependencies), actively maintained, permissively licensed, and solves a common problem—making UUIDs human-friendly. Install it if you need shorter, URL-safe identifiers for user-facing contexts. No security vulnerabilities are known, and it ranks in the top 1000 PyPI packages by download volume.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low friction: pure Python, no runtime dependencies, and actively maintained with recent commits.
- Supports Python 3.6 through 3.11.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD-3-Clause (permissive) — BSD-3-Clause (permissive): you may use, modify, and distribute shortuuid freely in commercial and private projects, provided you include the license notice.
last release 2024-03-11 (886 days) · last repo commit 2026-06-20 · 2,196 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 24,122,699 downloads/mo, #926 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install shortuuid
import shortuuid
# Generate a short UUID
short_id = shortuuid.uuid()
print(short_id) # e.g., 'vytxeTZskVKR7C7WgdSP3d'
# Generate a random secure string
random_str = shortuuid.ShortUUID().random(length=22)
print(random_str) # e.g., 'RaF56o2r58hTKT7AYS9doj'- Collision probability for truncated IDs shorter than the default 22 characters—the description says it 'will still be very low' but does not quantify it.
- Performance characteristics when generating large batches of IDs or with custom alphabets.
What it is and what it does
shortuuid wraps Python's built-in uuid module and translates the result into a shorter, more readable base57 string by removing visually similar characters (l, 1, I, O, 0). The default output is 22 characters long and URL-safe, making it suitable for user-facing identifiers where standard UUIDs are too verbose. It also supports encoding existing UUIDs, generating cryptographically secure random strings, and per-thread alphabet customization via the ShortUUID class.
The package includes a Django field that auto-generates short UUIDs as model defaults, and a command-line tool for quick ID generation. It has no external runtime dependencies and works across Python 3.6+, making it lightweight to add to any project that needs compact, unambiguous identifiers for URLs, APIs, or databases.
Use it for
- Generate short, readable IDs for user-facing URLs or API endpoints instead of full UUIDs.
- Encode existing UUID objects to shorter strings for storage or transmission.
- Use as a Django model field for auto-generated primary keys or API tokens with custom length and alphabet.
- Create cryptographically secure random strings of arbitrary length for tokens or secrets.
- Generate IDs from DNS or URL namespaces using UUID v5 for deterministic, reproducible short identifiers.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
shortuuid is lightweight (no dependencies), actively maintained, permissively licensed, and solves a common problem—making UUIDs human-friendly. Install it if you need shorter, URL-safe identifiers for user-facing contexts. No security vulnerabilities are known, and it ranks in the top 1000 PyPI packages by download volume.
Install
shortuuid on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python, no runtime dependencies, and actively maintained with recent commits. Supports Python 3.6 through 3.11.
License in practice
BSD-3-Clause (permissive): you may use, modify, and distribute shortuuid freely in commercial and private projects, provided you include the license notice.
Quickstart
pip install shortuuid
import shortuuid
# Generate a short UUID
short_id = shortuuid.uuid()
print(short_id) # e.g., 'vytxeTZskVKR7C7WgdSP3d'
# Generate a random secure string
random_str = shortuuid.ShortUUID().random(length=22)
print(random_str) # e.g., 'RaF56o2r58hTKT7AYS9doj'Verify before relying
- Collision probability for truncated IDs shorter than the default 22 characters—the description says it 'will still be very low' but does not quantify it.
- Performance characteristics when generating large batches of IDs or with custom alphabets.
Package facts
| License | BSD-3-Clause permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.6 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 886 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 24,122,699 / month, #926 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules |
Evidence: shortuuid-1.0.13-py3-none-any.whl
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