Question: Is there a supported way to remove or minimize the __next_f payload in the App Router?
Unanswered
Orange-tailed bumble bee posted this in #help-forum
Orange-tailed bumble beeOP
Hi Next.js team! 👋
I'm building a production application using the Next.js App Router and noticed that every page includes multiple scripts like:
<script>(self.next_f = self.next_f || []).push(...)</script>
When I inspect the page source, I can see that the next_f payload contains a significant amount of serialized data, including page content, metadata, and other information.
I have a few questions:
Is the next_f payload always required when using the App Router?
Is there any supported way to remove it entirely, or is it a fundamental part of the React Server Components architecture?
If it cannot be removed, what are the recommended best practices for minimizing its size?
Does a large next_f payload have any impact on SEO, crawling, or performance beyond increasing the HTML response size?
Are there common patterns that unintentionally make the payload much larger (for example, passing large objects to Client Components or serializing large HTML strings)?
My goal isn't to bypass the framework. I just want to understand the recommended approach for keeping the RSC payload as small as possible while continuing to use the App Router and following Next.js best practices.
If there are any official resources or documentation that explain how the next_f payload is generated and how developers should optimize it, I'd really appreciate a pointer.
Thanks for your time and for all the work on Next.js!
I'm building a production application using the Next.js App Router and noticed that every page includes multiple scripts like:
<script>(self.next_f = self.next_f || []).push(...)</script>
When I inspect the page source, I can see that the next_f payload contains a significant amount of serialized data, including page content, metadata, and other information.
I have a few questions:
Is the next_f payload always required when using the App Router?
Is there any supported way to remove it entirely, or is it a fundamental part of the React Server Components architecture?
If it cannot be removed, what are the recommended best practices for minimizing its size?
Does a large next_f payload have any impact on SEO, crawling, or performance beyond increasing the HTML response size?
Are there common patterns that unintentionally make the payload much larger (for example, passing large objects to Client Components or serializing large HTML strings)?
My goal isn't to bypass the framework. I just want to understand the recommended approach for keeping the RSC payload as small as possible while continuing to use the App Router and following Next.js best practices.
If there are any official resources or documentation that explain how the next_f payload is generated and how developers should optimize it, I'd really appreciate a pointer.
Thanks for your time and for all the work on Next.js!
3 Replies
Saint Hubert Jura Hound
next_f references the RSC payload. Its normal that its pretty big. Ur sort of trading bundle size with RSC payload size.
U can keep the size small by watching the props/object u send from server to client components, try keeping them small. Render the data on the server where possible.
For large data fetches just do them on the client, u only pay the round trip time cost without increasing the rsc payload size by a lot
U can keep the size small by watching the props/object u send from server to client components, try keeping them small. Render the data on the server where possible.
For large data fetches just do them on the client, u only pay the round trip time cost without increasing the rsc payload size by a lot
Its best to just build first and optimize later though, only if u see performance issues or have nothing else to do lol
Youd target routes that specifically have large rsc payloads, not just try to randomly optimize ur code