Environment Variables

Environment Variables are accessible during both the Build Step and Runtime and can be configured for Production, Preview, and Development Environments individually.

This allows you to inject values that you don't want to place directly in your source code and change its behavior depending on the Environment its running in.

To declare an Environment Variable for your deployment, head to the Environment Variables page of your Project Settings.

The Add New section of the Environment Variables page in the Project Settings.

You can add the following types of Environment Variables:

Once added, Environment Variables are applied to your subsequent deployments. They can then be consumed during the Build Step by the framework of your choice, or by a Serverless Function at Runtime.

Plaintext Environment Variables

The value of a Plaintext Environment Variable is stored as plain text and is visible to any user that has access to the Project.

To create a new Plaintext Environment Variable, select Plaintext in the first step.

Adding a Plaintext Environment Variable in the Project Settings.

Then, enter the Name of the Environment Variable. For example, if you are using Node.js and you create an Environment Variable named API_URL, it will be available under process.env.API_URL in your code.

Enter the desired Value for your Environment Variable and click Save.

Note that you can copy and paste a multi-line value. Alternatively, you can insert a line break in the Value field by pressing Enter key while holding Shift.

An example of a Plaintext Environment Variable.

Secret Environment Variables

You can populate the value of an Environment Variable with a Secret. They are encrypted and provide a secure way to store and share sensitive information between Deployments.

To create a new Secret Environment Variable, select Secret in the first step.

Enter the desired Name for your Environment Variable.

Adding a Secret Environment Variable in the Project Settings.

In the Value field, you can search and select an existing Secret available in your Personal Account or Team.

Alternatively, you can also create a new Secret. Click on Create new Secret for… to do so.

Creating a new Secret using the Add Secret modal.

Enter the Name and Value of the Secret. When you click Add, the Secret is created.

Lastly, select the desired Environments and click Save.

An example of a Secret Environment Variable.

Secrets

If you're looking to share a piece of information in Environment Variables across multiple Projects within the same Personal Account or Team on Vercel, Secrets are the best way to accomplish that.

Even if you only want to use the information inside a single Project, Secrets should always be used if you're dealing with sensitive information – like access tokens.

Once created (which can be done through our command-line interface or through the dashboard), they are stored encrypted and their value can only be retrieved again from within a Deployment.

In order to delete them, you can use our command-line interface.

System Environment Variables

​Vercel provides a set of Environment Variables that are automatically populated by the System, such as the URL of the Deployment or the name of the Git branch deployed.

To expose them to your Deployments, make sure Automatically expose System Environment Variables is checked in your Project Settings.

Automatically exposing System Environment Variables in the Project Settings.

The following System Environment Variables will be exposed to your Deployments:

References to System Environment Variables

In some cases, you might want to use the value of a System Environment Variable with a custom Environment Variable.

To add an Environment Variable referencing a System value to your Deployment, select Reference to System Environment Variable.

Adding a Reference to a System Environment Variable in the Project Settings.

Enter the desired Name for your Environment Variable.

In the Value field, select the value that you want the System to provide for your Environment Variable when a Deployment is created.

For example, if you enter GIT_SHA and select VERCEL_GIT_COMMIT_SHA, GIT_SHA will be populated with the SHA of the commit that triggered the Deployment.

An example of a Reference to a System Environment Variable.

Environments

For each Environment Variable, you can select one or more Environments to apply the Variable to:

Development Environment Variables

Environment Variables created for the Development Environment can be downloaded into a local development setup using the vercel env pull command provided by Vercel CLI:

vercel env pull
Downloading Development Environment Variables for project my-lovely-project
✅ Created .env file [510ms]

Downloading Development Environment Variables with the vercel env pull command.

Running the command will create a .env file in your project's directory, which can then be consumed by your framework's Development Command (like next dev).

If you're using vercel dev, there's no need to run vercel env pull, as vercel dev automatically downloads the Development Environment Variables into memory.

For more information on the vercel env command, check out this section.

Integration Environment Variables

Integrations can automatically add Environment Variables to your Project Settings. In that case, the Integration that added the Variable will be displayed:

An Environment Variable added by the Sentry Integration.

Reserved Environment Variables

The following Environment Variable names are reserved and therefore unavailable for use:

• AWS_REGION
• AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
• AWS_SECRET_KEY
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
• AWS_EXECUTION_ENV
• AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_GROUP_NAME
• AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_STREAM_NAME
• AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME
• AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_MEMORY_SIZE
• AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION
• AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
• NOW_REGION
• TZ
• LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT
• LAMBDA_RUNTIME_DIR