Sparticuz chromium-min working with vercel for pdf

levelz3111 · April 1, 2025, 3:31am

Hi all,

I’m encountering a persistent runtime error when trying to generate PDFs using Puppeteer within a Next.js App Router project deployed on Vercel. The PDF generation works correctly in my local development environment but fails consistently on Vercel deployments.

Project Details:

**Project Name: Vectorcv
Framework: Next.js (App Router)
Node.js Runtime: Node 22.x (as per deployment logs)
**error from vercel

Error in PDF generation: Error: The input directory "/var/task/.next/server/bin" does not exist.
    at d.executablePath (/var/task/.next/server/chunks/191.js:1:64134)
    at l (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:1697)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
    at async u (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:4235)
    at async /var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:38411
    at async e_.execute (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:27880)
    at async e_.handle (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:39943)
    at async en (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:16:25516)
    at async ea.responseCache.get.routeKind (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:17:1028)
    at async r9.renderToResponseWithComponentsImpl (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:17:508)


Error in PDF API route: Error: Failed to generate PDF: The input directory "/var/task/.next/server/bin" does not exist.
    at l (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:3486)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
    at async u (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:4235)
    at async /var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:38411
    at async e_.execute (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:27880)
    at async e_.handle (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/app-route.runtime.prod.js:6:39943)
    at async en (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:16:25516)
    at async ea.responseCache.get.routeKind (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:17:1028)
    at async r9.renderToResponseWithComponentsImpl (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:17:508)
    at async r9.renderPageComponent (/var/task/node_modules/next/dist/compiled/next-server/server.runtime.prod.js:17:5102)

Problem Description: The /api/pdf serverless function is designed to generate a PDF from HTML content using puppeteer-core and @sparticuz/chromium-min. While this works locally, on Vercel it fails with the following runtime error logged in the function logs:

Error: Failed to generate PDF: The input directory "/var/task/.next/server/bin" does not exist.
    at d.executablePath (/var/task/.next/server/chunks/191.js:1:64134)
    at l (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:1697)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
    at async u (/var/task/.next/server/app/api/pdf/route.js:1:4235)
    ... (rest of stack trace) ...

This indicates that the necessary Chromium binary files provided by @sparticuz/chromium-min are not being found at the expected path within the Vercel runtime environment.

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

Dependencies: Confirmed use of puppeteer-core and @sparticuz/chromium-min (switched from the full @sparticuz/chromium in an attempt to resolve).
Dynamic Imports: Implemented dynamic imports (await import(...)) for both puppeteer-core and @sparticuz/chromium-min within the service function (lib/services/pdf.service.ts) that handles PDF generation. This successfully reduced the reported Vercel function size from ~68MB to ~7MB, suggesting the initial bundle size limit is not the issue.
next.config.mjs Configurations: Tried various configurations, including:

The recommended setup: experimental: { serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['@sparticuz/chromium-min'], outputFileTracingIncludes: { '/api/pdf': ['./node_modules/@sparticuz/chromium-min/**'] } }
Using more specific paths in outputFileTracingIncludes (e.g., targeting the bin directory).
Removing @sparticuz/chromium-min from serverComponentsExternalPackages.
Removing outputFileTracingIncludes entirely.
Using @vercel/nft’s withFileTracing helper.
Removing the entire experimental block related to tracing/externals. None of these configuration changes resolved the runtime path error.

Environment Variables: Added SPARTICUZ_FUNCTION_NAME=pdf-generator to Vercel environment variables based on troubleshooting guides. Confirmed other potentially conflicting variables like PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH are not set.
Code Structure: The API route (app/api/pdf/route.tsx) simply imports and calls a service function (lib/services/pdf.service.ts). The service function contains the dynamic imports and Puppeteer logic, correctly calling await chromium.executablePath().

Despite these steps, the runtime error persists across deployments. It seems like an issue with Vercel’s build process not correctly tracing or packaging the necessary binary files from @sparticuz/chromium-min into the expected runtime location (/var/task/.next/server/bin or similar path resolved by chromium.executablePath()).

Could you please provide guidance on how to resolve this file tracing/packaging issue for @sparticuz/chromium-min within the Vercel environment?

also having @sparticuz/chromium-min has helped me keep this under 50MB limit

any assistance will be greatly appreciated. thank you.

miguelcabs · April 2, 2025, 1:43pm

Hey Levelz3111

I was able to take inspiration from this post on medium and get a working deployment on Vercel.

The big difference is it utlizes the remote executable vs trying to find the one if the file system from the dependency.

I’m not sure if that will give you what you need, my example just took a PDF of a site and returns it as a buffer. I’ll add the relevant bits below, curious to know your thoughts:

// package.json
"dependencies": {
    "@sparticuz/chromium-min": "^133.0.0",
    "next": "15.2.4",
    "puppeteer-core": "^24.5.0",
    "react": "^19.0.0",
    "react-dom": "^19.0.0"
  },

The Next Config

import type { NextConfig } from "next";

const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
// v15 made this property stable
  serverExternalPackages: ["puppeteer-core", "@sparticuz/chromium"],
};

export default nextConfig;

Here is the main pdf service I have

// @/lib/pdf.ts
import chromium from "@sparticuz/chromium-min";
import puppeteerCore from "puppeteer-core";

async function getBrowser() {
  const REMOTE_PATH = process.env.CHROMIUM_REMOTE_EXEC_PATH;
  const LOCAL_PATH = process.env.CHROMIUM_LOCAL_EXEC_PATH;
  if (!REMOTE_PATH && !LOCAL_PATH) {
    throw new Error("Missing a path for chromium executable");
  }

  if (!!REMOTE_PATH) {
    return await puppeteerCore.launch({
      args: chromium.args,
      executablePath: await chromium.executablePath(
        process.env.CHROMIUM_REMOTE_EXEC_PATH,
      ),
      defaultViewport: null,
      headless: true,
    });
  }

  return await puppeteerCore.launch({
    executablePath: LOCAL_PATH,
    defaultViewport: null,
    headless: true,
  });
}

export const makePDFFromDomain = async (url: string): Promise<Buffer> => {
  try {
    const browser = await getBrowser();
    const page = await browser.newPage();

    page.on("pageerror", (err: Error) => {
      throw err;
    });
    page.on("error", (err: Error) => {
      throw err;
    });

    await page.goto(url);
    await page.setViewport({ width: 1080, height: 1024 });

    const pdf = await page.pdf({
      format: "A4",
      printBackground: true,
      margin: { top: "0", right: "0", bottom: "0", left: "0" },
      preferCSSPageSize: true,
      displayHeaderFooter: false,
      scale: 1.0,
    });

    return Buffer.from(pdf);
  } catch (error) {
    throw error;
  }
};

Please let me know if any of this helped, happy to keep trying to find a solution for you!

kaifirschau · May 30, 2025, 1:16pm

@miguelcabs this solution works perfectly for me, as well! For me, the problem was the missing update in the Next config. Thank you very much for your help!

alexang-5495 · June 18, 2025, 9:42am

Hi @miguelcabs,

I have tried to use the same implementation but the process just stops precisely on this step
executablePath: await chromium.executablePath(
process.env.CHROMIUM_REMOTE_EXEC_PATH,
),

Following the medium post, I’ve used this as my path: https://github.com/Sparticuz/chromium/releases/download/v121.0.0/chromium-v121.0.0-pack.tar

I was wondering if hosting that .tar on my own vercel project might help but haven’t tried it yet.

Could you advise on what configuration did you use to enable to the download?

riyakarelia11-5431 · July 18, 2025, 2:30pm

TypeError: chromium.executablePath is not a function
at module.exports [as handler] (/var/task/api/chromium-test.js:6:58)
at r (/opt/rust/nodejs.js:2:14656)
at Server. (/opt/rust/nodejs.js:2:11356)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
at async Server. (/opt/rust/nodejs.js:16:7420)

alexang-5495 · August 23, 2025, 8:34am

Hey @matthewhoth I was able to make it work by hosting my own chromium v121.0.0 tar file on vercel blob. I suspect it is timing out on trying to download from Github directly. Another thing that could help is to know that this step only needs to be done once when you redeploy, and after that the same executable can be reused. All the best!

Topic		Replies	Views
Can't print a pdf with serverless chromium Help nextjs	2	169	February 28, 2025
Puppeteer in vercel server not working Help nextjs	3	49	October 28, 2025
Using Selenium during deployment fails Help nextjs , python	2	123	January 7, 2025
Google Auth working locally and failing after being deployed Help	7	244	February 5, 2025
Error occurred prerendering page "/_not-found" Help nextjs	3	458	February 26, 2025

Sparticuz chromium-min working with vercel for pdf

Related topics