DEV Community

Cover image for crypto.randomUUID is three times faster uuid.v4
Nikita Galkin
Nikita Galkin

Posted on

crypto.randomUUID is three times faster uuid.v4

#node #benchmark

Node.js v14.17 release added crypto.randomUUID(). This method allows to generate random RFC 4122 Version 4 UUID strings. Example:

const { randomUUID } = require('crypto');

console.log(randomUUID());
// '43c98ac2-8493-49b0-95d8-de843d90e6ca'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

I wondered how big the difference between uuid generation by Node.js API and uuid package.

For benchmarking I prefer to use hyperfine. It is like apache benchmark, but for CLI commands. There are have two cases:

  1. require('crypto').randomUUID()
  2. require('uuid').v4()

Let's put them into two files:

// test-native.js
const { randomUUID } = require('crypto');

for (let i = 0; i < 10_000_000; i++) {
  randomUUID();
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
// test-uuid.js
const { v4 } = require('uuid');

for (let i = 0; i < 10_000_000; i++) {
  v4();
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Now we ready for benchmarking:
hyperfine 'node test-native.js' 'node test-uuid.js'

This command shows that native generation is three times faster than uuid package. Awesome!

Top comments (7)

Collapse
 
rangoo94 profile image
Dawid Rusnak • • Edited

Actually, the randomUUID in Node v15.12+/v16 is a little more optimized, and outperforms it even more :)

Benchmark #3: node-15 native.js
  Time (mean ± σ):     564.6 ms ±   5.5 ms    [User: 556.8 ms, System: 14.1 ms]
  Range (min … max):   559.6 ms … 575.2 ms    10 runs

Summary
  'node-15 native.js' ran
    1.01 ± 0.01 times faster than 'node-16 native.js'
    3.51 ± 0.09 times faster than 'node-14 native.js'
   11.18 ± 0.13 times faster than 'node-14 uuid.js'
   12.52 ± 0.14 times faster than 'node-16 uuid.js'
   12.65 ± 0.26 times faster than 'node-15 uuid.js'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Collapse
 
qm3ster profile image
Mihail Malo •

It seems the faster crypto.randomUUID is, the slower uuid.js runs on that version :D

Collapse
 
galkin profile image
Nikita Galkin •

Thank you!

Collapse
 
jdgamble555 profile image
Jonathan Gamble •

This package is depreciated. Use uuid instead.

npm i uuid
npm i -D @types/uuid
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
import { v4 } from 'uuid';

v4();
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

J

Collapse
 
ehaynes99 profile image
Eric Haynes • • Edited

I didn't get all fancy with hyperfine, but a cursory test shows no appreciable difference in performance with npmjs.com/package/uuid. Still, 2 less dependencies is nice. :)

uuid.v4 took 954.153 ms
randomUUID took 962.838 ms
uuid.v4 took 987.495 ms
randomUUID took 965.426 ms
uuid.v4 took 984.862 ms
randomUUID took 949.582 ms
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode
Collapse
 
elrond25 profile image
Carlos Araya •

Just curious,

Is the difference any noticeable generating a single UUID or several hundred UUIDs as opposed to millions?

Collapse
 
vlucas profile image
Vance Lucas •

No. You likely won't notice much of a difference at all with a low number of uses in your code.

The good news is that the API is the same, so it's a simple function import swap, especially if you rename the function on import like:

import { randomUUID as v4 } from 'crypto';
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Read next

onthecodenow profile image

How to deploy a Backend project on Vercel | Node.js - Express.js 🚀

on the code now -

neelp03 profile image

Introducing EnviroX: Your Go-To Dev Environment Setup Tool! 🛠️

Neel Patel -

alex7842 profile image

Unlocking the Power of Real-Time Data Management with RxDB

ᴀʟᴇx -

codingashish_dev profile image

Backend Development Roadmap

Ashish Prajapati -