Environment variables and functions

Netlify environment variables are accessible when you run Netlify Functions, Edge Functions, and On-demand Builders. This allows you to securely provide sensitive values for your functions to use while they run – values such as API keys and tokens.

This page describes how to create environment variables for functions, the specific read-only variables that are available to functions during runtime, and how to use environment variables within your serverless functions and edge functions.

# Declare variables

You can declare and set environment variables using the Netlify UI, CLI, or API for use with functions. If you have the option to set specific scopes for your environment variables, the scope must include Functions to be available to functions during runtime.

Note that environment variables declared in a Netlify configuration file (netlify.toml) are not available to functions.

Visit the environment variables overview to learn more about environment variables at Netlify.

Want to configure your functions? Use build environment variables

This document focuses on how to use environment variables in your functions during runtime. If you need to set specific variables to configure how Netlify builds your functions, such as the Node.js version, leverage build environment variables instead.

# Netlify read-only variables

While Netlify offers a number of configuration and read-only environment variables during the build step, only a subset of these are available to functions during runtime.

# Functions

The following read-only environment variables are available to serverless functions (including scheduled functions, background functions, and On-demand Builders):

NETLIFY_IMAGES_CDN_DOMAIN: if image compression post processing is enabled, the base URL used for all processed images; for example, d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net.
SITE_NAME: name of the site, its Netlify subdomain; for example, petsof.
SITE_ID: unique ID for the site; for example, 1d01c0c0-4554-4747-93b8-34ce3448ab95.
URL: URL representing the main address to your site. It can be either a Netlify subdomain or your own custom domain if you set one; for example, https://petsof.netlify.app orhttps://www.petsofnetlify.com.

Also available are the runtime environment variables provided by AWS.

Note that other Netlify read-only environment variables are available when you use Netlify Dev to help with local development, but only the above subset are available in all other environments.

# Edge Functions

Edge Functions are in BETA.

The following read-only environment variables are available to edge functions, both provided by Deno:

DENO_REGION: the region code where the deployment is running; for example, us-east1.
DENO_DEPLOYMENT_ID: unique Deno ID of the deployment.

You can also leverage the Context object to access Netlify-specific read-only information within your edge functions. For example, the Context object includes a site property with the site’s id, name, and url.

# Overrides and limitations

The general environment variable overrides and limitations apply to environment variables used with functions. Here are some key limitations to note:

Environment variables declared in a Netlify configuration file (netlify.toml) are not available to functions.
Because Netlify Functions are powered by AWS Lambda, AWS’s environment property limits apply to environment variables used with Netlify Functions. If you have the option to set specific scopes for your environment variables, you can adjust the scope of your variables to avoid hitting these limits.
Changes to environment variables for functions require a require a build and deploy to take effect.

Note that if your site uses the classic environment variables experience, atomic deploys don’t apply to environment variables used in edge functions. All edge functions on these sites, including those in previous deploys, will automatically use the most recent environment variable key/value pairs.
If you use the Netlify CLI command netlify dev to run edge functions, the CLI will only use environment variable values set using the Netlify UI, CLI, or API. By default, netlify dev will use values set for the Local development deploy context. netlify dev will not use variables declared in a local .env file for edge functions. As a workaround, you can use the CLI to import environment variables from your .env file into Netlify before running netlify dev.

# Access environment variables

Once you declare environment variables for the functions scope, you can access them in two different ways depending on if you are using serverless functions or edge functions.

Want to use build environment variables in your functions?

By default, build environment variables are only available during the build step for your site. If you would like to use build environment variables in your functions, you’ll need to embed their values into the functions while your site is building. One way to do this is to use a plugin like Netlify Bundle ENV.

# Functions

In your serverless functions (including scheduled functions, background functions, and On-demand Builders), use the format process.env.VARIABLE_NAME to access environment variables available in the functions scope.

import { Handler, HandlerEvent, HandlerContext } from "@netlify/functions";

const handler: Handler = async (event: HandlerEvent, context: HandlerContext) => {
  
  const value = process.env.MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE;

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ message: `Value of MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE is ${value}.`}),
  };  
};

export { handler };

exports.handler = async function (event, context) {
  const value = process.env.MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE;

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ message: `Value of MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE is ${value}.` }),
  };  
};

# Edge Functions

Edge Functions are in BETA.

Netlify provides environment variables to edge functions using the Deno runtime, so you can access environment variables using the Deno.env API.

get(key): get the value of an environment variable
toObject(): get all environment variables as an object

Note that you can’t use the Deno set and delete methods to update environment variables from within edge functions. Instead, use the Netlify env API endpoints.

You can also leverage the Netlify-specific context object to access read-only information within your edge functions.

import type { Context } from "https://edge.netlify.com";

export default async (request: Request, context: Context) => {
  const value = Deno.env.get("MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE");

  return new Response(`Value of MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE for ${context.site.name} is ${value}.`, {
    headers: { "content-type": "text/html" },
  });
};

export default async (request, context) => {
  const value = Deno.env.get("MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE");

  return new Response(`Value of MY_IMPORTANT_VARIABLE for ${context.site.name} is ${value}.`, {
    headers: { "content-type": "text/html" },
  });
};

Using Edge Functions for Middleware with Next.js? Use process.env

If you’re using Netlify Edge Functions for Middleware with your Next.js site, you can also use process.env to access environment variables.

# More environment variables and functions resources

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