Fire and forget Next.js API route

Next.js version 14.2.0

I am trying to make an external API call from an API route using the fetch API. I am not interested in the external API response, I just want to fire and forget hence i am not using the await keyword on the fetch call,


export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
	try {
		fetch('/example-url', {
			method: 'POST',
		});

		res.status(200).json({ success: true });
	} catch (err) {
		return res.status(err.statusCode || 500).json({ error: err.message || 'Internal Server Error' });
	}
}

Why does Vercel not make the API call then return a 200?

Note: The above code works on my local

Screenshot 2025-07-11 at 09.04.08

Vercel Staff

Hi , I tried recreating the issue. Here's what I found:

The external requests are made (tested in both App and Pages router)
The external requests are not shown in the External APIs section if they're not awaited

I'm reaching out to the team to understand the reasoning behind it.

Vercel Staff

Hi , the team confirmed this is intentional because un-awaited promises are not guaranteed to complete.

You can use the waitUntil utility from @vercel/functions for your fire and forget use case, as described in the docs.

import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from "next";
import { waitUntil } from "@vercel/functions";

type ResponseData = {
  message: string;
};

export default async function handler(
  req: NextApiRequest,
  res: NextApiResponse<ResponseData>
) {
  try {
    waitUntil(fetch("https://example.com"));

    return res.status(200).json({ message: "Hello World" });
  } catch {
    return res.status(500).json({ message: "Error" });
  }
}

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