{
  "id": "identifier/snowflake-twitter",
  "family": "identifier",
  "slug": "snowflake-twitter",
  "title": "Snowflake ID (Twitter/X)",
  "summary": "A Twitter Snowflake is a 64-bit, roughly time-sortable identifier laid out as: 1 unused sign bit, a 41-bit millisecond timestamp offset from a custom epoch (1288834974657 ms, 2010-11-04), a 10-bit machine id (5-bit datacenter + 5-bit worker), and a 12-bit per-millisecond sequence counter. It fits in a signed 64-bit integer and sorts by creation time, which is why it underpins tweet and many other platform ids.",
  "kind": "identifier",
  "aliases": [
    "Twitter Snowflake",
    "X Snowflake",
    "snowflake id"
  ],
  "status": "de-facto",
  "verification": "verified",
  "tier": "C",
  "source_url": "https://github.com/twitter-archive/snowflake/tree/snowflake-2010",
  "source_version": "twitter-archive/snowflake @ snowflake-2010 (original release)",
  "retrieved_date": "2026-05-29",
  "attribution": [
    {
      "claim_ref": "ext.bit_layout",
      "source_url": "https://github.com/twitter-archive/snowflake/tree/snowflake-2010",
      "source_version": "snowflake-2010 tag",
      "note": "Original Twitter Snowflake: 41-bit timestamp, 10-bit machine id (5 datacenter + 5 worker), 12-bit sequence, 1 unused sign bit; 64-bit signed."
    },
    {
      "claim_ref": "ext.notes",
      "source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_ID",
      "source_version": "retrieved 2026-05-29",
      "note": "Second independent source for the field widths and the Twitter custom epoch 1288834974657 ms (2010-11-04)."
    },
    {
      "claim_ref": "ext.example",
      "source_url": "https://developer.x.com/en/docs/x-ids",
      "source_version": "retrieved 2026-05-29",
      "note": "Twitter/X documents that Tweet/user ids are 64-bit snowflakes returned as both int64 and string (id_str) because JS cannot hold the full precision."
    }
  ],
  "see_also": [
    "identifier/snowflake-discord",
    "identifier/uuidv7"
  ],
  "ext_type": "identifier@1",
  "ext": {
    "spec": "Twitter Snowflake (twitter-archive/snowflake)",
    "example": "1541815603606036480",
    "bit_layout": [
      {
        "field": "sign",
        "bits": 1,
        "meaning": "Unused/reserved most-significant bit, always 0 so the value is a non-negative signed int64."
      },
      {
        "field": "timestamp",
        "bits": 41,
        "meaning": "Milliseconds since the Twitter epoch 1288834974657 (2010-11-04 01:42:54.657 UTC)."
      },
      {
        "field": "datacenter_id",
        "bits": 5,
        "meaning": "Datacenter identifier (part of the 10-bit machine id)."
      },
      {
        "field": "worker_id",
        "bits": 5,
        "meaning": "Worker/machine identifier (the other half of the 10-bit machine id)."
      },
      {
        "field": "sequence",
        "bits": 12,
        "meaning": "Per-machine counter incremented for each id within the same millisecond (4096 ids/ms/machine)."
      }
    ],
    "length_bits": 64,
    "sortable": true,
    "encoding": "decimal uint64 (commonly carried as a string to avoid 53-bit JS float precision loss)",
    "notes": [
      "Custom epoch: subtract 1288834974657 ms (2010-11-04) from the timestamp field to recover Unix ms; only ~41 bits of time fit, lasting ~69 years from that epoch.",
      "The 10-bit machine id splits as 5-bit datacenter + 5-bit worker in the original Twitter design; other 'snowflake' systems repartition these 10 bits differently.",
      "Because the timestamp is the high-order field, snowflakes sort by creation time. JSON consumers should treat the id as a string; a 64-bit value exceeds JavaScript's 53-bit safe integer range.",
      "Example is an illustrative 19-digit 64-bit snowflake decimal."
    ]
  },
  "updated": "2026-05-29T00:00:00Z"
}