revalidateTag allows you to invalidate cached 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:

• With profile="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 use profile="max" or migrate to updateTag.

Good to know: When using profile="max", revalidateTag marks tagged data as stale, but fresh data is only fetched when pages using that tag are next visited. This means calling revalidateTag 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 in cacheLife. Alternatively, you can pass an object with an expire property for custom expiration behavior.

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

• Using the next.tags option with fetch for caching external API requests:

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

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

async function getData() {
  'use cache'
  cacheTag('posts')
  // ...
}

Good to know: The single-argument form revalidateTag(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 with revalidatePath

revalidateTag invalidates data with specific tags across all pages that use those tags, while revalidatePath 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, see relationship with revalidateTag and updateTag for more information.

Examples

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

Server Action

filename="app/actions.ts" switcher
'use server'


export default async function submit() {
  await addPost()
  revalidateTag('posts', 'max')
}

filename="app/actions.js" switcher
'use server'


export default async function submit() {
  await addPost()
  revalidateTag('posts', 'max')
}

Route Handler

filename="app/api/revalidate/route.ts" switcher

export async function GET(request: NextRequest) {
  const tag = request.nextUrl.searchParams.get('tag')

  if (tag) {
    revalidateTag(tag, 'max')
    return Response.json({ revalidated: true, now: Date.now() })
  }

  return Response.json({
    revalidated: false,
    now: Date.now(),
    message: 'Missing tag to revalidate',
  })
}

filename="app/api/revalidate/route.js" switcher

export async function GET(request) {
  const tag = request.nextUrl.searchParams.get('tag')

  if (tag) {
    revalidateTag(tag, 'max')
    return Response.json({ revalidated: true, now: Date.now() })
  }

  return Response.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 use updateTag in Server Actions for immediate updates instead.