Vercel released Next.js 16 in late 2025, and the headline change is that Turbopack is now the default bundler for every build. Vercel reports meaningfully faster production builds and much faster refreshes during development compared with the old setup.
The release also reworks caching. A new opt-in model makes caching explicit rather than something that happens quietly in the background, and React Compiler support is now stable.
If your site runs on Next.js, this is a real upgrade but not a fire drill. The build speedups help your developers ship faster, and the caching changes give you tighter control over what visitors see. Plan the move deliberately: version 16 changes several defaults and drops support for older Node versions, so budget time for testing before you push it live.
Further reading: original source ↗
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