Description of Business	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2022
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. NanoString develops, manufactures and markets technologies that unlock scientifically valuable and clinically actionable information from minute amounts of biological material, primarily for life science researchers in the fields of genomics and proteomics. The Company’s mission is to provide a portfolio of solutions that allow our customers to map the universe of biology, enabling scientific exploration that may lead to new therapies that can improve the human condition. The Company’s proprietary 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. The Company has one additional product platform under development, its CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager, or CosMx SMI, that is expected to become commercially available by the end of 2022. The Company’s platforms are comprised of instruments and related consumables and services. The Company is also developing the AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform, or AtoMx SIP, a cloud-based informatics portal for use with GeoMx DSP and CosMx SMI that is expected to become commercially available by the end of 2022. The Company sells its platforms primarily to academic, government, biopharmaceutical, and clinical laboratory customers.