vercel-storage

Vercel Storage

You are an expert in Vercel's storage options. Know which products are active, which are sunset, and when to use each.

Provider Choice for Bootstrap

Choose storage provisioning paths in this order:

1. Preferred: Vercel-managed Neon/Upstash through the Vercel Marketplace (vercel integration add ... or dashboard). This path auto-provisions accounts/resources and injects environment variables into the linked Vercel project.
2. Fallback: Provider CLI/manual provisioning only when Marketplace is unavailable or you must use an existing external account.

When using fallback/manual provisioning, you must add/sync environment variables yourself and then re-run vercel env pull .env.local --yes locally.

Active First-Party Storage

Vercel Blob — File Storage

Fast, scalable storage for unstructured data (images, videos, documents, any files).

npm install @vercel/blob

import { put, del, list, get } from '@vercel/blob'

// Upload from server (public)
const blob = await put('images/photo.jpg', file, {
  access: 'public',
})
// blob.url → public URL

// Upload private file
const privateBlob = await put('docs/secret.pdf', file, {
  access: 'private',
})
// Read private file back
const privateFile = await get(privateBlob.url) // returns ReadableStream + metadata

// Client upload (up to 5 TB)
import { upload } from '@vercel/blob/client'
const blob = await upload('video.mp4', file, {
  access: 'public',
  handleUploadUrl: '/api/upload', // Your token endpoint
})

// List blobs
const { blobs } = await list()

// Conditional get with ETags
const response = await get('images/photo.jpg', {
  ifNoneMatch: previousETag,
})
if (response.statusCode === 304) {
  // Not modified, use cached version
}

// Delete
await del('images/photo.jpg')

Private Storage (public beta): Use access: 'private' for files that should not be publicly accessible. Read them back with get(). Do NOT use private access for files that need to be served publicly — it leads to slow delivery and high egress costs.

Blob Data Transfer: Vercel Blob uses two delivery strategies — Fast Data Transfer (94 cities, latency-optimized) and Blob Data Transfer (18 hubs, volume-optimized for large assets). The system automatically routes via the optimal path.

Use when: Media files, user uploads, documents, any large unstructured data.

Vercel Edge Config — Global Configuration

Ultra-low-latency key-value store for application configuration. Not a database — designed for config data that must be read instantly at the edge.

npm install @vercel/edge-config

import { get, getAll, has } from '@vercel/edge-config'

// Read a single value (< 1ms at the edge)
const isFeatureEnabled = await get('feature-new-ui')

// Read multiple values
const config = await getAll(['feature-new-ui', 'ab-test-variant', 'redirect-rules'])

// Check existence
const exists = await has('maintenance-mode')

Use when: Feature flags, A/B testing config, dynamic routing rules, maintenance mode toggles. Anything that must be read at the edge with near-zero latency.

Do NOT use for: User data, session state, frequently written data. Edge Config is optimized for reads, not writes.

Next.js 16: @vercel/edge-config@^1.4.3 supports cacheComponents and the renamed proxy.ts (formerly middleware.ts).

Marketplace Storage (Partner-Provided)

IMPORTANT: @vercel/postgres and @vercel/kv are SUNSET

These packages no longer exist as first-party Vercel products. Use the marketplace replacements:

Neon Postgres (replaces @vercel/postgres)

Serverless Postgres with branching, auto-scaling, and connection pooling. The driver is GA at @neondatabase/serverless@^1.0.2 and requires Node.js 19+.

npm install @neondatabase/serverless

// Direct Neon usage
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)
const users = await sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`

// With Drizzle ORM
import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/neon-http'
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)
const db = drizzle(sql)

Build-time safety: The neon() call above throws if DATABASE_URL is not set. Since Next.js evaluates top-level module code at build time, this will crash next build when env vars aren't yet configured (e.g., first deploy before Marketplace provisioning). Use lazy initialization:

// src/db/index.ts — lazy initialization (safe for build time)
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'
import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/neon-http'
import * as schema from './schema'

function createDb() {
  const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)
  return drizzle(sql, { schema })
}

let _db: ReturnType<typeof createDb> | null = null

export function getDb() {
  if (!_db) _db = createDb()
  return _db
}

WARNING: Do NOT use JavaScript Proxy wrappers around the DB client. A common pattern is wrapping db in a Proxy for lazy initialization. This breaks libraries like NextAuth/Auth.js that inspect the DB adapter object (e.g., checking method existence, iterating properties). The Proxy intercepts those checks and breaks the auth request chain, causing hangs with no error. Use a plain getDb() function or a simple module-level lazy let instead.

Drizzle Kit migrations: drizzle-kit and tsx do NOT auto-load .env.local. Source env vars manually or use dotenv:

# Option 1: Source env vars before running
source <(grep -v '^#' .env.local | sed 's/^/export /') && npx drizzle-kit push

# Option 2: Use dotenv-cli (recommended for scripts)
npm install -D dotenv-cli
npx dotenv -e .env.local -- npx drizzle-kit push
npx dotenv -e .env.local -- npx tsx scripts/seed.ts

This applies to any Node script that needs Vercel-provisioned env vars — only Next.js auto-loads .env.local.

Install via Vercel Marketplace for automatic environment variable provisioning.

Neon CLI Fallback Notes

If you use Neon CLI as the fallback path, account/project setup is managed on Neon directly instead of through Vercel Marketplace automation.

For Vercel-managed Neon projects, CLI operations require a Neon API key; do not rely on normal browser-auth login flow alone.

Upstash Redis (replaces @vercel/kv)

Serverless Redis with same Vercel billing integration.

npm install @upstash/redis

import { Redis } from '@upstash/redis'

const redis = Redis.fromEnv() // Uses UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL & TOKEN

// Basic operations
await redis.set('session:abc', { userId: '123' }, { ex: 3600 })
const session = await redis.get('session:abc')

// Rate limiting
import { Ratelimit } from '@upstash/ratelimit'
const ratelimit = new Ratelimit({
  redis,
  limiter: Ratelimit.slidingWindow(10, '10s'),
})
const { success } = await ratelimit.limit('user:123')

Install via Vercel Marketplace for automatic environment variable provisioning.

Supabase (Marketplace Native)

Full Postgres database with built-in auth, realtime subscriptions, and storage. Native Vercel Marketplace integration.

npm install @supabase/supabase-js @supabase/ssr

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL!,
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY!
)

const { data, error } = await supabase.from('users').select('*')

Install via Vercel Marketplace: vercel integration add supabase

Prisma ORM (Marketplace Native)

Type-safe ORM with auto-generated client, migrations, and Prisma Accelerate for connection pooling.

npm install prisma @prisma/client
npx prisma init

import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client'

const prisma = new PrismaClient()
const users = await prisma.user.findMany()

Install via Vercel Marketplace: vercel integration add prisma

MongoDB Atlas

Document database with flexible schemas. Available via Vercel Marketplace.

npm install mongodb

import { MongoClient } from 'mongodb'

const client = new MongoClient(process.env.MONGODB_URI!)
const db = client.db('myapp')
const users = await db.collection('users').find({}).toArray()

Install via Vercel Marketplace: vercel integration add mongodb-atlas

Convex

Reactive backend-as-a-service with real-time sync, serverless functions, and file storage.

npm install convex
npx convex dev

import { query } from './_generated/server'
import { v } from 'convex/values'

export const getUsers = query({
  args: {},
  handler: async (ctx) => {
    return await ctx.db.query('users').collect()
  },
})

Turso (libSQL)

Edge-native SQLite database with embedded replicas for ultra-low latency reads.

npm install @libsql/client

import { createClient } from '@libsql/client'

const turso = createClient({
  url: process.env.TURSO_DATABASE_URL!,
  authToken: process.env.TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN!,
})

const result = await turso.execute('SELECT * FROM users')

Install via Vercel Marketplace: vercel integration add turso

Storage Decision Matrix

Need	Use	Package
File uploads, media, documents	Vercel Blob	@vercel/blob
Feature flags, A/B config	Edge Config	@vercel/edge-config
Relational data, SQL queries	Neon Postgres	@neondatabase/serverless
Key-value cache, sessions, rate limiting	Upstash Redis	@upstash/redis
Postgres + auth + realtime + storage	Supabase	@supabase/supabase-js
Type-safe ORM with migrations	Prisma	@prisma/client
Document database, flexible schemas	MongoDB Atlas	mongodb
Reactive backend with real-time sync	Convex	convex
Edge-native SQLite with replicas	Turso	@libsql/client
Full-text search	Neon Postgres (pg_trgm) or Elasticsearch (Marketplace)	varies
Vector embeddings	Neon Postgres (pgvector) or Pinecone (Marketplace)	varies

Migration Guide

From @vercel/postgres → Neon

- import { sql } from '@vercel/postgres'
+ import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'
+ const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)

Drop-in replacement: For minimal migration effort, use @neondatabase/vercel-postgres-compat which provides API-compatible wrappers for @vercel/postgres imports.

From @vercel/kv → Upstash Redis

- import { kv } from '@vercel/kv'
- await kv.set('key', 'value')
- const value = await kv.get('key')
+ import { Redis } from '@upstash/redis'
+ const redis = Redis.fromEnv()
+ await redis.set('key', 'value')
+ const value = await redis.get('key')

Installing Marketplace Storage

Use the Vercel CLI or the Marketplace dashboard at https://vercel.com/dashboard/{team}/stores:

# Install a storage integration (auto-provisions env vars)
vercel integration add neon
vercel integration add upstash

# List installed integrations
vercel integration list

Browse additional storage options at the Vercel Marketplace. Installing via the CLI or dashboard (https://vercel.com/dashboard/{team}/integrations) automatically provisions accounts, creates databases, and sets environment variables.

Official Documentation

• Vercel Storage
• Vercel Blob
• Edge Config
• Vercel Marketplace — Neon, Upstash, and other storage integrations
• Integrations
• GitHub: Vercel Storage