Next.js Dynamic OpenGraph Images with @vercel/og: Edge Runtime, Templates, and Caching

Sharing a link on Twitter or Slack with a blank gray preview is a missed opportunity. Dynamic OpenGraph images — generated per-page with the right title, author, category, and branding — dramatically increase click-through rates on social content. With @vercel/og, they generate at the edge in milliseconds using React JSX.

This guide covers templates for blog posts, landing pages, and user profiles, with caching strategies that keep your CDN bill reasonable.

How It Works

@vercel/og uses Satori (a JSX → SVG renderer) to convert React components to images. It runs at the edge (no cold start), supports a constrained subset of CSS (Flexbox only, no Grid), and returns a PNG response.

npm install @vercel/og

Blog Post OG Image

// app/og/route.tsx
import { ImageResponse } from "@vercel/og";
import { NextRequest } from "next/server";

export const runtime = "edge";

// Load fonts at module level (cached per edge instance)
const INTER_BOLD = fetch(
  new URL("../../public/fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf", import.meta.url)
).then((res) => res.arrayBuffer());

const INTER_REGULAR = fetch(
  new URL("../../public/fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf", import.meta.url)
).then((res) => res.arrayBuffer());

export async function GET(req: NextRequest) {
  const { searchParams } = req.nextUrl;

  const title       = searchParams.get("title")?.slice(0, 100) ?? "Untitled";
  const description = searchParams.get("desc")?.slice(0, 160) ?? "";
  const category    = searchParams.get("cat") ?? "";
  const author      = searchParams.get("author") ?? "Viprasol Tech Team";
  const readTime    = searchParams.get("rt") ?? "";
  const type        = searchParams.get("type") ?? "post"; // post | page | profile

  const [interBold, interRegular] = await Promise.all([INTER_BOLD, INTER_REGULAR]);

  const CATEGORY_COLORS: Record<string, { bg: string; text: string }> = {
    "web-dev":   { bg: "#dbeafe", text: "#1d4ed8" },
    "ai-ml":     { bg: "#ede9fe", text: "#6d28d9" },
    "cloud":     { bg: "#d1fae5", text: "#065f46" },
    "saas":      { bg: "#fce7f3", text: "#9d174d" },
    "fintech":   { bg: "#fef3c7", text: "#92400e" },
    "trading":   { bg: "#fee2e2", text: "#991b1b" },
    "blockchain":{ bg: "#f3f4f6", text: "#374151" },
    "business":  { bg: "#e0f2fe", text: "#0c4a6e" },
  };

  const catStyle = CATEGORY_COLORS[category] ?? { bg: "#f3f4f6", text: "#374151" };
  const catLabel = category
    ? category.replace("-", " ").replace(/\b\w/g, (c) => c.toUpperCase())
    : "";

  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div
        style={{
          width: "100%",
          height: "100%",
          display: "flex",
          flexDirection: "column",
          backgroundColor: "#ffffff",
          fontFamily: "Inter",
          padding: "60px",
          position: "relative",
        }}
      >
        {/* Top accent bar */}
        <div style={{
          position: "absolute",
          top: 0, left: 0, right: 0,
          height: "6px",
          background: "linear-gradient(90deg, #2563eb 0%, #7c3aed 50%, #db2777 100%)",
        }} />

        {/* Logo */}
        <div style={{
          display: "flex",
          alignItems: "center",
          gap: "10px",
          marginBottom: "auto",
        }}>
          <div style={{
            width: "36px",
            height: "36px",
            borderRadius: "8px",
            backgroundColor: "#2563eb",
            display: "flex",
            alignItems: "center",
            justifyContent: "center",
          }}>
            <div style={{ color: "white", fontSize: "16px", fontWeight: "700" }}>V</div>
          </div>
          <span style={{ fontSize: "16px", fontWeight: "600", color: "#374151" }}>
            Viprasol
          </span>
        </div>

        {/* Category badge */}
        {catLabel && (
          <div style={{
            display: "flex",
            marginBottom: "20px",
          }}>
            <span style={{
              backgroundColor: catStyle.bg,
              color: catStyle.text,
              fontSize: "14px",
              fontWeight: "600",
              padding: "4px 14px",
              borderRadius: "100px",
              textTransform: "uppercase",
              letterSpacing: "0.05em",
            }}>
              {catLabel}
            </span>
          </div>
        )}

        {/* Title */}
        <div style={{
          fontSize: title.length > 60 ? "38px" : "48px",
          fontWeight: "700",
          color: "#111827",
          lineHeight: "1.2",
          marginBottom: "20px",
          maxWidth: "900px",
        }}>
          {title}
        </div>

        {/* Description */}
        {description && (
          <div style={{
            fontSize: "20px",
            color: "#6b7280",
            lineHeight: "1.5",
            maxWidth: "800px",
            marginBottom: "32px",
          }}>
            {description.length > 120 ? description.slice(0, 120) + "…" : description}
          </div>
        )}

        {/* Footer */}
        <div style={{
          display: "flex",
          alignItems: "center",
          justifyContent: "space-between",
          borderTop: "1px solid #e5e7eb",
          paddingTop: "24px",
          marginTop: "auto",
        }}>
          <div style={{ display: "flex", alignItems: "center", gap: "8px" }}>
            <div style={{
              width: "32px", height: "32px", borderRadius: "50%",
              backgroundColor: "#dbeafe",
              display: "flex", alignItems: "center", justifyContent: "center",
            }}>
              <span style={{ fontSize: "14px", color: "#2563eb", fontWeight: "700" }}>
                {author[0]}
              </span>
            </div>
            <span style={{ fontSize: "16px", color: "#374151" }}>{author}</span>
          </div>

          {readTime && (
            <span style={{ fontSize: "15px", color: "#9ca3af" }}>
              {readTime}
            </span>
          )}
        </div>
      </div>
    ),
    {
      width: 1200,
      height: 630,
      fonts: [
        { name: "Inter", data: interBold,    weight: 700 },
        { name: "Inter", data: interRegular, weight: 400 },
      ],
    }
  );
}

Metadata Integration

// app/blog/[slug]/page.tsx
import type { Metadata } from "next";
import { getPost } from "@/lib/cms";

export async function generateMetadata({
  params,
}: {
  params: { slug: string };
}): Promise<Metadata> {
  const post = await getPost(params.slug);
  if (!post) return {};

  const APP_URL = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL!;

  // Build OG image URL with query params
  const ogImageUrl = new URL("/og", APP_URL);
  ogImageUrl.searchParams.set("title",  post.title);
  ogImageUrl.searchParams.set("desc",   post.excerpt ?? "");
  ogImageUrl.searchParams.set("cat",    post.category);
  ogImageUrl.searchParams.set("author", post.author.name);
  ogImageUrl.searchParams.set("rt",     post.readTime);

  return {
    title: post.title,
    description: post.excerpt,
    openGraph: {
      title: post.title,
      description: post.excerpt ?? undefined,
      type: "article",
      publishedTime: post.publishedAt,
      authors: [post.author.name],
      images: [{
        url: ogImageUrl.toString(),
        width: 1200,
        height: 630,
        alt: post.title,
      }],
    },
    twitter: {
      card: "summary_large_image",
      title: post.title,
      description: post.excerpt ?? undefined,
      images: [ogImageUrl.toString()],
      creator: "@viprasol",
    },
  };
}

Caching Strategy

OG images don't change often — cache them aggressively:

// app/og/route.tsx — add cache headers
export async function GET(req: NextRequest) {
  // ... image generation ...

  const response = new ImageResponse(/* ... */, { width: 1200, height: 630, fonts });

  // Cache at CDN for 7 days, stale-while-revalidate for 30 days
  response.headers.set(
    "Cache-Control",
    "public, immutable, no-transform, max-age=604800, stale-while-revalidate=2592000"
  );

  return response;
}

For Vercel: OG images are cached at the edge automatically. For self-hosted, add a CDN in front.

Profile Card Template

// app/og/profile/route.tsx — user profile OG card
import { ImageResponse } from "@vercel/og";
import { NextRequest } from "next/server";

export const runtime = "edge";

export async function GET(req: NextRequest) {
  const { searchParams } = req.nextUrl;
  const name       = searchParams.get("name") ?? "User";
  const title      = searchParams.get("title") ?? "";
  const projects   = searchParams.get("projects") ?? "0";
  const avatarUrl  = searchParams.get("avatar") ?? "";

  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div style={{
        width: "100%", height: "100%",
        display: "flex", flexDirection: "column", alignItems: "center",
        justifyContent: "center",
        backgroundColor: "#0f172a",
        fontFamily: "system-ui",
        gap: "16px",
      }}>
        {/* Gradient blob */}
        <div style={{
          position: "absolute",
          top: "50%", left: "50%",
          transform: "translate(-50%, -50%)",
          width: "400px", height: "400px",
          borderRadius: "50%",
          background: "radial-gradient(circle, rgba(37,99,235,0.3) 0%, transparent 70%)",
        }} />

        {avatarUrl ? (
          // eslint-disable-next-line @next/next/no-img-element
          <img
            src={avatarUrl}
            width={96} height={96}
            style={{ borderRadius: "50%", border: "3px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.2)" }}
            alt={name}
          />
        ) : (
          <div style={{
            width: "96px", height: "96px", borderRadius: "50%",
            backgroundColor: "#2563eb",
            display: "flex", alignItems: "center", justifyContent: "center",
            fontSize: "40px", color: "white", fontWeight: "700",
          }}>
            {name[0]}
          </div>
        )}

        <div style={{ color: "white", fontSize: "36px", fontWeight: "700" }}>
          {name}
        </div>
        {title && (
          <div style={{ color: "#94a3b8", fontSize: "20px" }}>{title}</div>
        )}
        <div style={{
          display: "flex", gap: "24px", marginTop: "8px",
        }}>
          <div style={{ textAlign: "center" }}>
            <div style={{ color: "white", fontSize: "24px", fontWeight: "700" }}>
              {projects}
            </div>
            <div style={{ color: "#64748b", fontSize: "14px" }}>Projects</div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    ),
    { width: 1200, height: 630 }
  );
}

File-Based Fallback

For pages without dynamic OG images, use a static fallback:

// app/layout.tsx — default OG image
export const metadata: Metadata = {
  openGraph: {
    images: ["/og-default.png"], // Static file in /public
  },
};

Satori CSS Constraints

Things that work in @vercel/og:

• Flexbox (display: "flex", flexDirection, alignItems, justifyContent)
• position: "absolute" with top, left, right, bottom
• border, borderRadius, borderColor
• background, backgroundColor, backgroundImage (gradients via CSS string)
• Custom fonts (TTF, OTF via fetch)
• <img> elements with absolute URLs

Things that don't work:

• CSS Grid (display: "grid")
• CSS variables (var(--color))
• overflow: "hidden" (partially supported)
• Web fonts via Google Fonts URL (must fetch TTF directly)
• SVG <image> tags

Investment and Timeline

Cost to run: Essentially free on Vercel (edge invocations) and cached at CDN. On self-hosted, each image is ~10–50ms CPU and cached after first render.

More on This Topic

• Next.js Performance Optimization
• Next.js Static Generation with ISR
• Next.js Draft Mode for CMS Previews
• Next.js Edge Runtime Patterns
• Next.js App Router Caching Strategies

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Viprasol in Action

Dynamic OG images consistently improve social share click-through rates — posts with branded, content-specific preview images perform 2–3× better than those with generic images or blank previews. Our team designs and implements @vercel/og templates that match your brand, with custom fonts, category colors, and metadata pulled directly from your CMS.

What we deliver:

• Blog post OG image with title, description, category badge, and author
• Profile card template with avatar and stats
• Metadata helpers for generateMetadata() in App Router
• Proper Cache-Control headers for CDN caching
• Satori-compatible Flexbox layout (tested across card sizes)

Talk to our team about your social sharing setup →

Or explore our web development services.