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canirequire › Dual (CommonJS + ESM) › terser

Is terser ESM-only? Can you require() it?

JavaScript parser, mangler/compressor and beautifier toolkit for ES6+

Last verified Sep 9, 2026 against terser@5.51.2. JSON

Dual (CommonJS + ESM) Dual package — both require() and import work

terser publishes both a CommonJS entry and a native ESM entry (ESM added in 5.0.0). require("terser") and import "terser" both work on every supported Node.js version and in Bun.

Latest
5.51.2 (Aug 27, 2026)
Module format
Dual (CommonJS + ESM)
Last CommonJS version
5.51.2
Native ESM since
5.0.0
TypeScript types
Bundled
Node engines
>=10
Weekly downloads
71.8M
License
BSD-2-Clause

Does terser@5.51.2 actually load? Runtime test results

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

Runtimerequire("terser")import "terser"
Node.js 18✓ works✓ works
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

How to import terser

ES modules (import)

import terser from "terser";

CommonJS (require)

const terser = require("terser");

Module format by version

Derived from the type, main and exports fields of every stable release on npm (205 versions; the newest 60 shown).

VersionsFormatFirst published
5.21.0 – 5.51.2Dual (CommonJS + ESM)Oct 3, 2023

Frequently asked

Is terser ESM-only?

terser@5.51.2 ships CommonJS and ESM builds. terser publishes both a CommonJS entry and a native ESM entry (ESM added in 5.0.0). require("terser") and import "terser" both work on every supported Node.js version and in Bun.

Can I require terser?

Yes. terser ships a CommonJS entry, so require("terser") works on every Node.js version, alongside the native ESM entry for import.

Does terser work in Bun?

Yes. import "terser" loaded successfully in Bun 1.4 on Sep 9, 2026.

Does terser ship TypeScript types?

Yes. terser bundles its own type declarations; no @types package is needed.

Links

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