Source: Geometric Group Theory: An Introduction, Clara Löh, but is a standard exercise.
Problem: Let be a set. Then, up to isomorphism, there is at most one group freely generated by
.
Proof: Let and
be groups with free generating set
. Let
and
be the inclusion maps from
into
and
respectively. By the universal property of free groups, there are unique homomorphisms
and
such that for all
,
. Hence
and
are homomorphisms which fix
. Using the universal property again, there is a unique homomorphism from
to itself which fixes
– the identity map. Hence, because of uniqueness,
is the identity map. An analogous argument shows that
is the identity map, and therefore
is an isomorphism.
Commutative diagram showing the above, with curly arrows
denoting inclusion in the usual places in universal property diagrams