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Is babel-loader ESM-only? Can you require() it?

babel module loader for webpack

Last verified Sep 9, 2026 against babel-loader@10.1.1. JSON

CommonJS CommonJS — require() works on every Node.js version

babel-loader ships CommonJS only. require("babel-loader") works everywhere. import "babel-loader" also works because Node.js and Bun can import CommonJS from ES modules, but only the default export is guaranteed; named imports depend on Node's static analysis of the module.

Latest
10.1.1 (Mar 9, 2026)
Module format
CommonJS
Last CommonJS version
10.1.1
TypeScript types
None
Node engines
^18.20.0 || ^20.10.0 || >=22.0.0
Weekly downloads
21.5M
License
MIT

Does babel-loader@10.1.1 actually load? Runtime test results

Installed and executed on Sep 9, 2026 with require("babel-loader") from a CommonJS file and import "babel-loader" from an ES module.

Runtimerequire("babel-loader")import "babel-loader"
Node.js 18✗ failsERR_REQUIRE_ESM✗ failsERR_REQUIRE_ESM
Node.js 20✓ works✓ works
Node.js 22✓ works✓ works
Node.js 24✓ works✓ works
Node.js 26✓ works✓ works
Bun 1.4✓ works✓ works

A failing require() on a CommonJS package usually means the package needs a browser/DOM global, a peer dependency, or a native binary that is not available in a bare Node.js process.

How to import babel-loader

ES modules (import)

import babelLoader from "babel-loader";

Named imports from a CommonJS package only work when Node.js can statically detect them. If a named import fails, use the default import and destructure.

CommonJS (require)

const babelLoader = require("babel-loader");

Module format by version

Derived from the type, main and exports fields of every stable release on npm (73 versions; the newest 60 shown).

VersionsFormatFirst published
5.3.1 – 10.1.1CommonJSJul 4, 2015

Frequently asked

Is babel-loader ESM-only?

babel-loader@10.1.1 is a CommonJS package. babel-loader ships CommonJS only. require("babel-loader") works everywhere. import "babel-loader" also works because Node.js and Bun can import CommonJS from ES modules, but only the default export is guaranteed; named imports depend on Node's static analysis of the module.

Can I import babel-loader with ES module syntax?

Yes. import babelLoader from "babel-loader" works in Node.js and Bun because they support importing CommonJS modules. Named imports work only when Node.js can statically detect the exports.

Does babel-loader work in Bun?

Yes. import "babel-loader" loaded successfully in Bun 1.4 on Sep 9, 2026.

Does babel-loader ship TypeScript types?

No. babel-loader ships no type declarations and there is no @types package for it.

Links

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