GaN nanowires (NWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy are usually assumed free of strain in spite of different individual luminescence signatures. To ascertain this usual assumption, the c/a of a GaN NW assembly has been characterized using both X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, with scaling the measurement down to the single NW. Free-standing single NWs have been observed free of strain-defined as [c/a = (c/a)(o)]/(c/a)(o)-within the experimental accuracy amounting to 1.25 x 10(-4). However, in the general case, a significant portion of the NWs is coalesced, generating an average tensile strain that can be partly released by detaching the NWs from their substrates. It is concluded that at the scale of the single NW, the free surface and the residual doping do not generate a significant strain and only coalescence does. Published by AIP Publishing.