Vercel storage expert guidance — Blob, Edge Config, and Marketplace storage (Neon Postgres, Upstash Redis). Use when choosing, configuring, or using data storage with Vercel applications.
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Vercel storage expert guidance — Blob, Edge Config, and Marketplace storage (Neon Postgres, Upstash Redis). Use when choosing, configuring, or using data storage with Vercel applications.
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:
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.
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).
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 = awaitget('feature-new-ui')
// Read multiple valuesconst config = awaitgetAll(['feature-new-ui', 'ab-test-variant', 'redirect-rules'])
// Check existenceconst exists = awaithas('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 usageimport { neon } from'@neondatabase/serverless'const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!)
const users = await sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`// With Drizzle ORMimport { 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:
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 runningsource <(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.
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.
