Description of Business	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2021
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Description of Business	Description of the BusinessNanoString Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated in the state of Delaware on June 20, 2003. The Company’s headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington. The Company’s proprietary single-molecule chemistries enable the direct detection, identification, and quantification of individual target molecules in biological samples by attaching unique molecular reporters to each target molecule of interest. The Company currently markets and sells two platforms based on its proprietary technologies, its nCounter Analysis System, and its GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler, or GeoMx DSP System, both consisting of instruments and consumables, to academic, government, biopharmaceutical, and clinical laboratory customers.

The entire disclosure for the business description and basis of presentation concepts. Business description describes the nature and type of organization including but not limited to organizational structure as may be applicable to holding companies, parent and subsidiary relationships, business divisions, business units, business segments, affiliates and information about significant ownership of the reporting entity. Basis of presentation describes the underlying basis used to prepare the financial statements (for example, US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting, IFRS).

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 235
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2122369

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2122149

Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2134479

Name:	us-gaap_BusinessDescriptionAndBasisOfPresentationTextBlock
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	dtr-types:textBlockItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration