Period over which grantee's right to exercise award under share-based payment arrangement is no longer contingent on satisfaction of service or performance condition, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days. Includes, but is not limited to, combination of market, performance or service condition.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 718
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=120381028&loc=d3e5070-113901

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardAwardVestingPeriod1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:durationItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Gross number of share options (or share units) granted during the period.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardOptionsGrantsInPeriodGross
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:sharesItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Period from grant date that an equity-based award expires, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 718
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (a)(2)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=120381028&loc=d3e5070-113901

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_SharebasedCompensationArrangementBySharebasedPaymentAwardExpirationPeriod
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:durationItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	srt_RangeAxis=srt_MinimumMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_AwardTypeAxis=us-gaap_RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	srt_RangeAxis=srt_MaximumMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_PlanNameAxis=crsp_OptionAndGrantPlansMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_SubsidiarySaleOfStockAxis=us-gaap_IPOMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

Equity-based Compensation - Option and Grant Plans - Additional Information (Detail) - shares	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2020	Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Share-based payment award, number of shares granted	2,182,773	2,832,784	2,209,597
Minimum [Member] \| Restricted Stock Unit [Member]
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Share-based compensation, vesting period	2 years
Maximum [Member] \| Restricted Stock Unit [Member]
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Share-based compensation, vesting period	3 years
Option and Grant Plans [Member]
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Share-based compensation, vesting period	4 years
Share-based compensation, options, contractual life	10 years
Option and Grant Plans [Member] \| IPO [Member]
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Share-based payment award, number of shares granted	0