Getting Started with Next.js 16

Next.js 16 is here, and it's packed with improvements that make building production-ready React applications faster and more enjoyable than ever.

What's New

Turbopack as Default Turbopack is now the default bundler for Next.js 16. In our benchmarks, it's up to 10x faster than webpack for cold starts and 700x faster for incremental updates. You don't need to do anything — just run `next dev` and enjoy the speed.

The new `use cache` Directive Caching in Next.js 16 gets a major overhaul with the `use cache` directive. You can now annotate any async function with `"use cache"` to opt it into automatic, smart caching:

async function getProducts() {
  "use cache";
  const res = await fetch("https://api.example.com/products");
  return res.json();
}

React 19 Integration Full React 19 support means you get access to the latest hooks and concurrent features, including `use()`, `useOptimistic()`, and improved Suspense streaming.

Upgrading

Run the codemods to upgrade automatically:

npx @next/codemod@latest upgrade latest

Most apps can upgrade in minutes with no breaking changes. Check the [migration guide](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/upgrading/version-16) for edge cases.

Conclusion

Next.js 16 is the most developer-friendly release yet. The caching improvements alone are worth the upgrade — and Turbopack by default makes the day-to-day development experience dramatically smoother.