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Turbopack is Next.js’s built-in, Rust-based incremental bundler. It is now stable for both development and production builds, and Next.js 16 made it the default bundler for new projects. The Next.js team reports faster builds and refreshes, but those gains vary by project; teams should check build output, styling, and their own workload before treating them as guaranteed.
What Turbopack does in Next.js
Turbopack is not a separate framework or a replacement for Next.js. The official Next.js Turbopack documentation describes it as “an incremental bundler optimized for JavaScript and TypeScript, written in Rust, and built into Next.js.” Incremental bundling means it can reuse work as code changes, which is intended to speed up development feedback as well as builds.
When Turbopack became the default
Its status changed over several releases, so an old description of it as experimental is no longer accurate for current Next.js use.
- Next.js 13, October 2022: Turbopack was introduced as an alpha for development.
- Next.js 15, October 2024: Turbopack for development became stable, according to the Turbopack documentation.
- Next.js 15.5, August 18, 2025: production builds using
next build --turbopackentered beta. The Next.js 15.5 announcement reported performance comparisons and documented limitations. - Next.js 16, October 21, 2025: Turbopack became stable for production and the default bundler for new projects. The Next.js 16 announcement says teams can still select webpack with the
--webpackflag.
As of October 7, 2026, the official Next.js blog index references Next.js 16.3.3 as Active LTS in an August 2026 security notice and includes subsequent Turbopack updates. Release and support labels can change; check the Next.js blog for the current status.
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How much faster are builds?
The Next.js team’s published results are encouraging, but they are not independent benchmarks or a promise about every application.
| Measurement | Reported result | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Compilation on a 4-core machine | 2× faster | Next.js team comparison in the Next.js 15.5 beta announcement. |
| Compilation on a 14-core machine | 2.2× faster | Next.js team comparison in the Next.js 15.5 beta announcement. |
| Small site, 10K modules | 4× faster | Selected Next.js team comparison in the Next.js 15.5 beta announcement. |
| Medium site, 40K modules | 2.5× faster | Selected Next.js team comparison in the Next.js 15.5 beta announcement. |
| Large site, 70K modules | 5× faster | Selected Next.js team comparison in the Next.js 15.5 beta announcement. |
| Production builds | 2–5× faster | Expected performance figure reported by the Next.js team in its Next.js 16 announcement. |
| Fast Refresh | Up to 10× faster | Expected performance figure reported by the Next.js team in its Next.js 16 announcement. |
The Next.js 15.5 announcement says smaller projects or machines sometimes saw only marginal improvements or no improvement, partly in comparison with webpack’s persistent cache. The published results should therefore be read as selected team measurements, not a universal speedup.
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What to check before switching a project
For a new Next.js 16 project, Turbopack is the default. For an established app, test it against the actual development and production workloads the team cares about rather than relying on a headline multiplier.
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- Run the project’s real workload. Compare build times on the same machine and with the same repository and build conditions. Record development refresh behavior separately from production build time.
- Inspect generated output. The Next.js 15.5 announcement notes cases where webpack produced more optimized bundles. Check bundle size and application behavior rather than assuming a faster compilation produces a better final bundle.
- Verify CSS-dependent screens. The beta announcement says different CSS side-effect heuristics could change concatenation order and cause visual differences. Check pages whose appearance depends on ordering-sensitive styles.
- Keep webpack if your setup needs it. Next.js 16 retains the
--webpackoption for teams with custom webpack configurations or migration needs, as documented in the release announcement.
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