Static Exports

Next.js enables starting as a static site or Single-Page Application (SPA), then later optionally upgrading to use features that require a server.

When running next build, Next.js generates an HTML file per route. By breaking a strict SPA into individual HTML files, Next.js can avoid loading unnecessary JavaScript code on the client-side, reducing the bundle size and enabling faster page loads.

Since Next.js supports this static export, it can be deployed and hosted on any web server that can serve HTML/CSS/JS static assets.

Configuration

To enable a static export, change the output mode inside next.config.js:

/**
 * @type {import('next').NextConfig}
 */
const nextConfig = {
  output: 'export',
  // Optional: Add a trailing slash to all paths `/about` -> `/about/`
  // trailingSlash: true,
  // Optional: Change the output directory `out` -> `dist`
  // distDir: 'dist',
};
 
module.exports = nextConfig;

After running next build, Next.js will produce an out folder which contains the HTML/CSS/JS assets for your application.

Supported Features

The core of Next.js has been designed to support static exports.

Server Components

When you run next build to generate a static export, Server Components consumed inside the app directory will run during the build, similar to traditional static-site generation.

The resulting component will be rendered into static HTML for the initial page load and a static payload for client navigation between routes. No changes are required for your Server Components when using the static export, unless they consume dynamic server functions.

export default async function Page() {
  // This fetch will run on the server during `next build`
  const res = await fetch('https://api.example.com/...');
  const data = await res.json();
 
  return <main>...</main>;
}

Client Components

If you want to perform data fetching on the client, you can use a Client Component with SWR to deduplicate requests.

'use client';
 
import useSWR from 'swr';
 
const fetcher = (url: string) => fetch(url).then((r) => r.json());
 
export default function Page() {
  const { data, error } = useSWR(
    `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1`,
    fetcher,
  );
  if (error) return 'Failed to load';
  if (!data) return 'Loading...';
 
  return data.title;
}

Since route transitions happen client-side, this behaves like a traditional SPA. For example, the following index route allows you to navigate to different posts on the client:

import Link from 'next/link';
 
export default function Page() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>Index Page</h1>
      <hr />
      <ul>
        <li>
          <Link href="/post/1">Post 1</Link>
        </li>
        <li>
          <Link href="/post/2">Post 2</Link>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </>
  );
}

Image Optimization

Image Optimization through next/image can be used with a static export by defining a custom image loader in next.config.js. For example, you can optimize images with a service like Cloudinary:

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  output: 'export',
  images: {
    loader: 'custom',
    loaderFile: './app/image.ts',
  },
};
 
module.exports = nextConfig;

This custom loader will define how to fetch images from a remote source. For example, the following loader will construct the URL for Cloudinary:

export default function cloudinaryLoader({
  src,
  width,
  quality,
}: {
  src: string;
  width: number;
  quality?: number;
}) {
  const params = ['f_auto', 'c_limit', `w_${width}`, `q_${quality || 'auto'}`];
  return `https://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/${params.join(
    ',',
  )}${src}`;
}

You can then use next/image in your application, defining relative paths to the image in Cloudinary:

import Image from 'next/image';
 
export default function Page() {
  return <Image alt="turtles" src="/turtles.jpg" width={300} height={300} />;
}

Route Handlers

Route Handlers will render a static response when running next build. Only the GET HTTP verb is supported. This can be used to generate static HTML, JSON, TXT, or other files from dynamic or static data. For example:

import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
 
export async function GET() {
  return NextResponse.json({ name: 'Lee' });
}

The above file app/data.json/route.ts will render to a static file during next build, producing data.json containing { name: 'Lee' }.

If you need to read dynamic values from the incoming request, you cannot use a static export.

Browser APIs

Client Components are pre-rendered to HTML during next build. Because Web APIs like window, localStorage, and navigator are not available on the server, you need to safely access these APIs only when running in the browser. For example:

'use client';
 
import { useEffect } from 'react';
 
export default function ClientComponent() {
  useEffect(() => {
    // You now have access to `window`
    console.log(window.innerHeight);
  }, [])
 
  return ...;
}

Unsupported Features

After enabling the static export output mode, all routes inside app are opted-into the following Route Segment Config:

export const dynamic = 'error';

With this configuration, your application will produce an error if you try to use server functions like headers or cookies, since there is no runtime server. This ensures local development matches the same behavior as a static export. If you need to use server functions, you cannot use a static export.

The following additional dynamic features are not supported with a static export:

• rewrites in next.config.js
• redirects in next.config.js
• headers in next.config.js
• Middleware
• Incremental Static Regeneration

Deploying

With a static export, Next.js can be deployed and hosted on any web server that can serve HTML/CSS/JS static assets.

When running next build, Next.js generates the static export into the out folder. Using next export is no longer needed. For example, let's say you have the following routes:

• /
• /blog/[id]

After running next build, Next.js will generate the following files:

• /out/index.html
• /out/404.html
• /out/blog/post-1.html
• /out/blog/post-2.html

If you are using a static host like Nginx, you can configure rewrites from incoming requests to the correct files:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name acme.com;
 
  root /var/www;
 
  location / {
      try_files /out/index.html =404;
  }
 
  location /blog/ {
      rewrite ^/blog/(.*)$ /out/blog/$1.html break;
  }
 
  error_page 404 /out/404.html;
  location = /404.html {
      internal;
  }
}

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