What’s the cache scope difference between revalidate and revalidatePath in ISR?

[ByungyeonKim]

Summary

• I’m trying to understand the difference in cache scope between revalidate and revalidatePath.
• From what I know:
  • Using revalidate (e.g., for ISR) updates the cache only on the edge node where the request was handled.
  • On the other hand, revalidatePath (for on-demand ISR) seems to propagate cache updates globally across all edge nodes.
  • I couldn’t find a clear answer in the Vercel documentation or community discussions.
• Is this actually how it works? And if so, why is revalidatePath treated differently from revalidate in terms of cache invalidation?

Additional information

- Next.js version: 15.x (App Router)

Example

No response

[KhaledSaeed18]

The main difference is when they trigger:

• revalidate: 60 -> automatic, time-based
• revalidatePath() -> manual, on-demand

// Time-based ISR – revalidates on-request after 60s (per-region)
export const revalidate = 60

// On-demand ISR – global revalidation immediately
export async function POST(request) {
  const { path } = await request.json()
  revalidatePath(path)
  return Response.json({ revalidated: true })
}

Why the different treatment?

• revalidatePath() is designed for immediate consistency: when you update content in a CMS or admin panel, you want all users globally to see the new content right away. It's intentionally aggressive.
• revalidate (time-based) is more about performance optimization: trades consistency for performance, allowing slight staleness for faster responses and reduced server load.

Helpful resources I found:

• Next.js revalidatePath API reference
• Vercel on demand revalidation reference
• Medium post

[ByungyeonKim]

Hello, thank you so much for your detailed response. I thoroughly reviewed the link you provided and read through some additional documents as well.

However, my main curiosity was about where exactly it states that time-based ISR updates happen regionally, whereas on-demand ISR updates occur globally and immediately—as you mentioned in the code block.

I couldn't find any detailed explanation about this behavior in either the Vercel or Next.js official documentation. Specifically, if a user in Korea triggers a page regeneration after the revalidation period in a time-based ISR scenario, why does the edge cache only update in the Korean region?

Why doesn't the cache update globally across all edge servers, like it does with on-demand ISR? Is this approach chosen because it's more efficient or cost-effective? If that's the case, your explanation about revalidatePath() being an aggressive approach totally makes sense.

I've been trying to dive deeper into this, but understanding the exact reasons behind this behavior has proven difficult. If anyone has insights into why this distinction exists, I'd greatly appreciate your advice!