UUID Generator

A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a 128-bit identifier that is guaranteed to be unique across space and time. UUIDs are used in software development to identify database records, API resources, distributed systems components, session tokens, and more. They eliminate the need for a central authority to assign unique IDs, making them ideal for distributed and microservice architectures.

UUID v4 is generated using random or pseudo-random numbers and is the most commonly used version. UUID v1 uses the current timestamp and MAC address. UUID v3 and v5 use namespace-based hashing (MD5 and SHA-1 respectively). UUID v4 is preferred because it doesn't leak any information about the machine or time of creation, and provides sufficient uniqueness for virtually all use cases.

UUID v4 has 122 random bits, giving approximately 5.3 x 10^36 possible values. The probability of generating two identical UUIDs is astronomically low. You would need to generate about 2.71 quintillion UUIDs to have a 50% chance of a single collision. For all practical purposes, UUID v4 values are unique.

UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) and GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) are essentially the same thing. GUID is the term used by Microsoft, while UUID is the standard term defined by RFC 4122. Both follow the same format: 32 hexadecimal digits displayed in five groups separated by hyphens (8-4-4-4-12).

Yes. This UUID generator uses crypto.randomUUID() or crypto.getRandomValues() which provides cryptographically secure random numbers. UUIDs are generated entirely in your browser and are never sent to any server. They are suitable for database primary keys, API identifiers, and any use case requiring unique identifiers.