What is Zod?

Zod is a TypeScript-first validation library. Define a schema and parse some data with it. You'll get back a strongly typed, validated result.

import * as z from "zod";
const User = z.object({
  name: z.string(),
});
// some untrusted data...
const input = {
  /* stuff */
};
// the parsed result is validated and type safe!
const data = User.parse(input);
// so you can use it with confidence :)
console.log(data.name);

Features

Zero external dependencies
Works in Node.js and all modern browsers
Tiny: 2kb core bundle (gzipped)
Immutable API: methods return a new instance
Concise interface
Works with TypeScript and plain JS
Built-in JSON Schema conversion
Extensive ecosystem

Installation

npm install zod

Basic usage

Before you can do anything else, you need to define a schema. For the purposes of this guide, we'll use a simple object schema.

import * as z from "zod";
const Player = z.object({
  username: z.string(),
  xp: z.number(),
});

Parsing data

Given any Zod schema, use .parse to validate an input. If it's valid, Zod returns a strongly-typed deep clone of the input.

Player.parse({ username: "billie", xp: 100 });
// => returns { username: "billie", xp: 100 }

Note — If your schema uses certain asynchronous APIs like async refinements or transforms, you'll need to use the .parseAsync() method instead.

const schema = z.string().refine(async (val) => val.length <= 8);
await schema.parseAsync("hello");
// => "hello"

AOT compilation

For hot validation paths, z.compile(schema) returns a schema clone with an ahead-of-time compiled fast path. Valid inputs take the compiled path; invalid inputs fall back to the regular parser so error reporting stays identical.

Across a 55-schema benchmark the median speedup is 2.4x, and it scales with how much work the schema does per parse: a large array of objects is ~9x, a 20-key object ~9x, a nested object ~4.5x, while a bare z.string() gains nothing — compilation removes per-node dispatch and allocation, and a single typeof has none to remove.

const CompiledPlayer = z.compile(Player);
CompiledPlayer.parse({ username: "billie", xp: 100 });

To enable compilation globally for schemas constructed after import:

import "zod/compile"; // place before modules that define schemas

Things to know:

Compilation uses new Function. Global mode is automatically disabled when z.config({ jitless: true }) is set (e.g. CSP environments); calling z.compile() directly is an explicit opt-in.
Schemas with async refinements or transforms can't be compiled — z.compile() throws ZodCompileAsyncError; other unsupported constructs throw ZodCompileUnsupportedError. In global mode such schemas silently keep using the regular parser.
On invalid input, refinements and transforms may run twice (fast path, then fallback).
Deriving a new schema from a compiled one (.refine(), .extend(), etc.) returns an uncompiled schema — compile the final schema.

See compile docs for details.

Handling errors

When validation fails, the .parse() method will throw a ZodError instance with granular information about the validation issues.

try {
  Player.parse({ username: 42, xp: "100" });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof z.ZodError) {
    err.issues;
    /* [
      {
        expected: 'string',
        code: 'invalid_type',
        path: [ 'username' ],
        message: 'Invalid input: expected string'
      },
      {
        expected: 'number',
        code: 'invalid_type',
        path: [ 'xp' ],
        message: 'Invalid input: expected number'
      }
    ] */
  }
}

To avoid a try/catch block, you can use the .safeParse() method to get back a plain result object containing either the successfully parsed data or a ZodError. The result type is a discriminated union, so you can handle both cases conveniently.

const result = Player.safeParse({ username: 42, xp: "100" });
if (!result.success) {
  result.error; // ZodError instance
} else {
  result.data; // { username: string; xp: number }
}

Note — If your schema uses certain asynchronous APIs like async refinements or transforms, you'll need to use the .safeParseAsync() method instead.

const schema = z.string().refine(async (val) => val.length <= 8);
await schema.safeParseAsync("hello");
// => { success: true; data: "hello" }

Inferring types

Zod infers a static type from your schema definitions. You can extract this type with the z.infer<> utility and use it however you like.

const Player = z.object({
  username: z.string(),
  xp: z.number(),
});
// extract the inferred type
type Player = z.infer<typeof Player>;
// use it in your code
const player: Player = { username: "billie", xp: 100 };

In some cases, the input & output types of a schema can diverge. For instance, the .transform() API can convert the input from one type to another. In these cases, you can extract the input and output types independently:

const mySchema = z.string().transform((val) => val.length);
type MySchemaIn = z.input<typeof mySchema>;
// => string
type MySchemaOut = z.output<typeof mySchema>; // equivalent to z.infer<typeof mySchema>
// number