UUID Generator

Generate secure random UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers) instantly

Generate Random UUID

Generated UUID will appear here...

What is a UUID?

A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a 128-bit identifier that is unique across both space and time, with minimal coordination between systems generating the UUIDs. They are commonly used in software development for creating unique identifiers for records, transactions, sessions, and more.

UUID Format

The standard format for a UUID is represented by 32 hexadecimal digits, displayed in five groups separated by hyphens, following the pattern 8-4-4-4-12 for a total of 36 characters (including the hyphens):

xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Common Uses for UUIDs

  • Database primary keys
  • Session identifiers for web applications
  • Transaction IDs in distributed systems
  • Unique file names
  • Object identifiers in programming
  • Preventing duplicate data entries

UUID Versions

This generator creates Version 4 UUIDs, which are generated using random or pseudo-random numbers. They're the most commonly used type due to their simplicity and the minimal chance of collision.

About This Tool

This UUID generator creates version 4 UUIDs using the browser's cryptographically strong random number generator. The UUIDs generated are secure and appropriate for most use cases requiring unique identifiers.

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Complete UUID Guide & Distributed Systems Best Practices

UUID Usage Statistics

  • 📈 82% of distributed systems use UUIDs
  • 💻 1M+ UUIDs/sec generation capacity
  • 🔢 3.4e38 possible combinations
Collision Probability

1 in 2.71 quintillion at 1B UUIDs/sec

UUID Version Comparison

Version Entropy Use Case RFC Compliance
v1 MAC + Timestamp Legacy systems 4122
v4 122-bit random Modern apps 4122
v5 SHA-1 hash Deterministic IDs 4122

Enterprise Considerations

📚 Database Indexing
  • Use UUIDv7 for ordered IDs
  • Consider ULID alternatives
🔐 Security
  • Prefer v4 over v1
  • Validate input UUIDs
📈 Performance
  • Binary storage vs text
  • Sharding strategies

Industry Applications

🌐 Distributed Systems

Conflict-free replication
CRDT implementations

📱 Mobile Apps

Offline-first data sync
Local database keys

🔗 Microservices

Cross-service tracing
Correlation IDs

UUID Best Practices

Critical: Avoid UUIDv1 for security-sensitive systems!
  1. Use v4 for random UUIDs
  2. Store as BINARY(16) in databases
  3. Validate format before processing
  4. Consider time-ordered UUIDv7
  5. Benchmark collision handling

FAQ: UUID Implementation

UUIDs enable distributed generation while auto-increment requires central coordination. UUIDs add 16-byte storage overhead but prevent merge conflicts.

New time-ordered UUID format (draft RFC) combining timestamp and randomness. Provides better database indexing than v4.