maxDuration and server actions

[eric-burel]

Hi, I am trying to migrate some API routes towards Server Actions, but I am stuck with maxDuration: how can we set it for the POST endpoints generated by server actions?

[mordechaim]

You set it on the route segment that executes the action, i.e. the layout or page that does not have a "use client" directive.
https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route-segment-config#maxduration

[eric-burel]

Hi folks, you'd want to open a separate issue for this with repro, either on Vercel side or on Next side. I initially opened a discussion because it was a matter of documentation, but what you hit here is a bug so you need a ticket to get it fixed.

[tillka]

For sake of completness from my side:
I included the maxDuration on page.tsx calling the sever action, as follows.
export const maxDuration = 300;
This throws the error "maxDuration" is not a valid Next.js entry export value.ts(71002)
I put // @ts-ignore above the maxDuration statement - which doesn't remove the error in my VS Code but it successfully builds AND does the job as intended, i.e. overcoming the 15 seconds funcition limitation. Hope that helps

[ShayDavidson]

I eventually move the maxDuration to the server component page using the action, and then it worked for me. But this is not documented anywhere as far as I my search went, besides random mentions in Github Issues.

[evan-runloopai]

Is it expected that the vercel global config should still apply to server actions?
These configuration docs make it seem like you should be able to configure all server actions to run for a longer timeout of 60 seconds using a glob pattern like:

{
  "functions": {
    "app/**/*": {
      "maxDuration": 60
    }
  }
}

It seems to not apply when I test my app. I can open an issue report if it's actual bug but seems like maybe it's not documented that NextJS server actions have their separate configuration mechanism?

[Edit]:
Seemed I forgot I was using a src directory 😅 so my vercel.json line needed to be prefixed with 'src/' but I can confirm this configuration seemingly works if anyone is trying to change all their server action timeouts while they migrate from API routes

[bWgibb]

{
  "functions": {
    "src/app/**/*": {
      "maxDuration": 30
    }
  }
}

This worked for me to get my 15s server action to work (hobby plan).

[berkayermis]

I also was looking an explicit sentence in the docs but couldn't see anything.

So, I wanted to add the maxDuration at the most top level in my root page.tsx as @tillka did. Also, I upgraded my free plan to pro. Now, it works as I desired.

Version: Nextjs v14.1.0 with App Router.

[mordechaim]

Quoting the docs

Server Actions inherit the Route Segment Config from the page or layout they are used on, including fields like maxDuration.

[tylerbecks]

Quoting the docs

Server Actions inherit the Route Segment Config from the page or layout they are used on, including fields like maxDuration.

This fixed it to me. I added the maxDuration on my page instead of the server function file.

[yaman-694]

I am using server action to call an api which takes upto 25s to response and db operations are perform in the backend. I am on the pro plan which support 60s for the API routes. how to resolve this issue

[dryor]

Hey, @yaman-694 you can create vercel.json and configure the maximum duration here the durations for each plan https://vercel.com/docs/functions/runtimes#max-execution-time

[abhiamishra]

This issue seems to have opened up with the Hobby plan now:

https://github.com/orgs/vercel/discussions/7094#discussion-6781027

[Pratham271]

How can I increase the timeout for vercel server actions

[tylerbecks]

I tried everything, and only one thing worked for me. Note: I'm on React 19 and NextJS 15.

Adding this to my page component from where the server action is called fixed it:

export const maxDuration = 300;

What didn't work:

• Trying to configure vercel.json. I tried many iterations of this and nothing worked, the docs seem outdated because they still mention the pages/ router instead of the app router. The docs also mention that the file must be in the api/ directory, which doesn't seem to match the NextJS docs on server components
• Setting maxDuration in the server function failed because I have the 'use server' directive on the top of the and it says I can only export async functions from files with the 'use server' directive.
• Adding @ts-ignore didn't work for me

Overall, I'm disappointed in the state of the documentation from Vercel on server actions.

[SokratisVidros]

I’m experiencing the same issue, setting maxDuration with use server still isn’t working and is very unintuitive.

Additionally, it would be really helpful if Next.js allowed configuring a global maxDuration in next.config.js, especially for projects not deployed on Vercel. Overriding the setting on a per-file basis completes the puzzle.