revalidateTag

revalidateTag allows you to invalidatecached data on-demand for a specific cache tag.

This function is ideal for content where a slight delay in updates is acceptable, such as blog posts, product catalogs, or documentation. Users receive stale content while fresh data loads in the background.

Usage

revalidateTag can be called in Server Functions and Route Handlers.

revalidateTag cannot be called in Client Components or Proxy, as it only works in server environments.

Revalidation Behavior

The revalidation behavior depends on whether you provide the second argument:

• Withprofile="max" (recommended): The tag entry is marked as stale, and the next time a resource with that tag is visited, it will use stale-while-revalidate semantics. This means the stale content is served while fresh content is fetched in the background.
• With a custom cache life profile: For advanced usage, you can specify any cache life profile that your application has defined, allowing for custom revalidation behaviors tailored to your specific caching requirements.
• Without the second argument (deprecated): The tag entry is expired immediately, and the next request to that resource will be a blocking revalidate/cache miss. This behavior is now deprecated, and you should either useprofile="max" or migrate toupdateTag.

Good to know: When usingprofile="max",revalidateTag marks tagged data as stale, but fresh data is only fetched when pages using that tag are next visited. This means callingrevalidateTag will not immediately trigger many revalidations at once. The invalidation only happens when any page using that tag is next visited.

Parameters

revalidateTag(tag: string, profile: string| { expire?: number }):void;

• tag: A string representing the cache tag associated with the data you want to revalidate. Must not exceed 256 characters. This value is case-sensitive.
• profile: A string that specifies the revalidation behavior. The recommended value is"max" which provides stale-while-revalidate semantics, or any of the other default or custom profiles defined incacheLife. Alternatively, you can pass an object with anexpire property for custom expiration behavior.

Tags must first be assigned to cached data. You can do this in two ways:

• Using thenext.tags option withfetch for caching external API requests:

fetch(url, { next: { tags: ['posts'] } })

• UsingcacheTag inside cached functions or components with the'use cache' directive:

import { cacheTag }from'next/cache'asyncfunctiongetData() {'use cache'cacheTag('posts')// ...}

Good to know: The single-argument formrevalidateTag(tag) is deprecated. It currently works if TypeScript errors are suppressed, but this behavior may be removed in a future version. Update to the two-argument signature.

Returns

revalidateTag does not return a value.

Relationship withrevalidatePath

revalidateTag invalidates data with specific tags across all pages that use those tags, whilerevalidatePath invalidates specific page or layout paths.

Good to know: These functions serve different purposes and may need to be used together for comprehensive data consistency. For detailed examples and considerations, seerelationship with revalidateTag and updateTag for more information.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to userevalidateTag in different contexts. In both cases, we're usingprofile="max" to mark data as stale and use stale-while-revalidate semantics, which is the recommended approach for most use cases.

Server Action

'use server'import { revalidateTag }from'next/cache'exportdefaultasyncfunctionsubmit() {awaitaddPost()revalidateTag('posts','max')}

Route Handler

importtype { NextRequest }from'next/server'import { revalidateTag }from'next/cache'exportasyncfunctionGET(request:NextRequest) {consttag=request.nextUrl.searchParams.get('tag')if (tag) {revalidateTag(tag,'max')returnResponse.json({ revalidated:true, now:Date.now() })  }returnResponse.json({    revalidated:false,    now:Date.now(),    message:'Missing tag to revalidate',  })}

Good to know: For webhooks or third-party services that need immediate expiration, you can pass{ expire: 0 } as the second argument:revalidateTag(tag, { expire: 0 }). This pattern is necessary when external systems call your Route Handlers and require data to expire immediately. For all other cases, it's recommended to useupdateTag in Server Actions for immediate updates instead.