{/* The content of this doc is shared between the app and pages router. You can use the <PagesOnly>Content</PagesOnly> component to add content that is specific to the Pages Router. Any shared content should not be wrapped in a component. */}

<Link> is a React component that extends the HTML <a> element to provide prefetching and client-side navigation between routes. It is the primary way to navigate between routes in Next.js.

Basic usage:

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard</Link>
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard</Link>
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard</Link>
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard</Link>
}

Reference

The following props can be passed to the <Link> component:

Good to know: <a> tag attributes such as className or target="_blank" can be added to <Link> as props and will be passed to the underlying <a> element.

href (required)

The path or URL to navigate to.

import Link from 'next/link'

// Navigate to /about?name=test
export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link
      href={{
        pathname: '/about',
        query: { name: 'test' },
      }}
    >
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

// Navigate to /about?name=test
export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link
      href={{
        pathname: '/about',
        query: { name: 'test' },
      }}
    >
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

// Navigate to /about?name=test
export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link
      href={{
        pathname: '/about',
        query: { name: 'test' },
      }}
    >
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

// Navigate to /about?name=test
export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link
      href={{
        pathname: '/about',
        query: { name: 'test' },
      }}
    >
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

replace

Defaults to false. When true, next/link will replace the current history state instead of adding a new URL into the browser's history stack.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" replace>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" replace>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" replace>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" replace>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

scroll

Defaults to true. The default scrolling behavior of <Link> in Next.js is to maintain scroll position, similar to how browsers handle back and forwards navigation. When you navigate to a new Page, scroll position will stay the same as long as the Page is visible in the viewport. However, if the Page is not visible in the viewport, Next.js will scroll to the top of the first Page element.

When scroll = {false}, Next.js will not attempt to scroll to the first Page element.

Good to know: Next.js checks if scroll: false before managing scroll behavior. If scrolling is enabled, it identifies the relevant DOM node for navigation and inspects each top-level element. All non-scrollable elements and those without rendered HTML are bypassed, this includes sticky or fixed positioned elements, and non-visible elements such as those calculated with getBoundingClientRect. Next.js then continues through siblings until it identifies a scrollable element that is visible in the viewport.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" scroll={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" scroll={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" scroll={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" scroll={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

prefetch

Prefetching happens when a <Link /> component enters the user's viewport (initially or through scroll). Next.js prefetches and loads the linked route (denoted by the href) and its data in the background to improve the performance of client-side navigations. If the prefetched data has expired by the time the user hovers over a <Link />, Next.js will attempt to prefetch it again. Prefetching is only enabled in production.

The following values can be passed to the prefetch prop:

• "auto" or null (default): Prefetch behavior depends on whether the route is static or dynamic. For static routes, the full route will be prefetched (including all its data). For dynamic routes, the partial route down to the nearest segment with a loading.js boundary will be prefetched.
• true: The full route is prefetched for both static and dynamic routes. With Partial Prefetching enabled, the prefetch is the App Shell; on a route that opts into prefetch = 'allow-runtime', it also includes the per-link runtime data and the cached content behind it.
• false: Prefetching will never happen both on entering the viewport and on hover.

With Partial Prefetching enabled (partialPrefetching: true): the default changes. auto prefetches the per-route App Shell (the route's static and cached content) instead of the full page. See Adopting Partial Prefetching for the full behavior change.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" prefetch={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" prefetch={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

Prefetching happens when a <Link /> component enters the user's viewport (initially or through scroll). Next.js prefetches and loads the linked route (denoted by the href) and data in the background to improve the performance of client-side navigation's. Prefetching is only enabled in production.

The following values can be passed to the prefetch prop:

• true (default): The full route and its data will be prefetched.
• false: Prefetching will not happen when entering the viewport, but will happen on hover. If you want to completely remove fetching on hover as well, consider using an <a> tag or incrementally adopting the App Router, which enables disabling prefetching on hover too.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" prefetch={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" prefetch={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

shallow

Update the path of the current page without rerunning getStaticProps, getServerSideProps or getInitialProps. Defaults to false.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" shallow={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/dashboard" shallow={false}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

locale

The active locale is automatically prepended. locale allows for providing a different locale. When false href has to include the locale as the default behavior is disabled.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <>
      {/* Default behavior: locale is prepended */}
      <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard (with locale)</Link>

      {/* Disable locale prepending */}
      <Link href="/dashboard" locale={false}>
        Dashboard (without locale)
      </Link>

      {/* Specify a different locale */}
      <Link href="/dashboard" locale="fr">
        Dashboard (French)
      </Link>
    </>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <>
      {/* Default behavior: locale is prepended */}
      <Link href="/dashboard">Dashboard (with locale)</Link>

      {/* Disable locale prepending */}
      <Link href="/dashboard" locale={false}>
        Dashboard (without locale)
      </Link>

      {/* Specify a different locale */}
      <Link href="/dashboard" locale="fr">
        Dashboard (French)
      </Link>
    </>
  )
}

as

Optional decorator for the path that will be shown in the browser URL bar. Before Next.js 9.5.3 this was used for dynamic routes, check our previous docs to see how it worked.

When this path differs from the one provided in href the previous href/as behavior is used as shown in the previous docs.

onNavigate

An event handler called during client-side navigation. The handler receives an event object that includes a preventDefault() method, allowing you to cancel the navigation if needed.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link
      href="/dashboard"
      onNavigate={(e) => {
        // Only executes during SPA navigation
        console.log('Navigating...')

        // Optionally prevent navigation
        // e.preventDefault()
      }}
    >
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link
      href="/dashboard"
      onNavigate={(e) => {
        // Only executes during SPA navigation
        console.log('Navigating...')

        // Optionally prevent navigation
        // e.preventDefault()
      }}
    >
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

Good to know: While onClick and onNavigate may seem similar, they serve different purposes. onClick executes for all click events, while onNavigate only runs during client-side navigation. Some key differences:

• When using modifier keys (Ctrl/Cmd + Click), onClick executes but onNavigate doesn't since Next.js prevents default navigation for new tabs.
• External URLs won't trigger onNavigate since it's only for client-side and same-origin navigations.
• Links with the download attribute will work with onClick but not onNavigate since the browser will treat the linked URL as a download.

transitionTypes

A list of transition types to apply to the navigation. These types are passed to React.addTransitionType inside the navigation transition, enabling <ViewTransition> components to apply different animations based on the type of navigation.

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" transitionTypes={['slide-in']}>
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" transitionTypes={['slide-in']}>
      About
    </Link>
  )
}

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to use the <Link> component in different scenarios.

Linking to dynamic route segments

When linking to dynamic segments, you can use template literals and interpolation to generate a list of links. For example, to generate a list of blog posts:

import Link from 'next/link'

interface Post {
  id: number
  title: string
  slug: string
}

export default function PostList({ posts }: { posts: Post[] }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {posts.map((post) => (
        <li key={post.id}>
          <Link href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>{post.title}</Link>
        </li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function PostList({ posts }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {posts.map((post) => (
        <li key={post.id}>
          <Link href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>{post.title}</Link>
        </li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

Checking active links

You can use usePathname() to determine if a link is active. For example, to add a class to the active link, you can check if the current pathname matches the href of the link:

'use client'

import { usePathname } from 'next/navigation'
import Link from 'next/link'

export function Links() {
  const pathname = usePathname()

  return (
    <nav>
      <Link className={`link ${pathname === '/' ? 'active' : ''}`} href="/">
        Home
      </Link>

      <Link
        className={`link ${pathname === '/about' ? 'active' : ''}`}
        href="/about"
      >
        About
      </Link>
    </nav>
  )
}

'use client'

import { usePathname } from 'next/navigation'
import Link from 'next/link'

export function Links() {
  const pathname = usePathname()

  return (
    <nav>
      <Link className={`link ${pathname === '/' ? 'active' : ''}`} href="/">
        Home
      </Link>

      <Link
        className={`link ${pathname === '/about' ? 'active' : ''}`}
        href="/about"
      >
        About
      </Link>
    </nav>
  )
}

Linking to dynamic route segments

For dynamic route segments, it can be handy to use template literals to create the link's path.

For example, you can generate a list of links to the dynamic route pages/blog/[slug].js

import Link from 'next/link'

function Posts({ posts }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {posts.map((post) => (
        <li key={post.id}>
          <Link href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>{post.title}</Link>
        </li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

function Posts({ posts }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {posts.map((post) => (
        <li key={post.id}>
          <Link href={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>{post.title}</Link>
        </li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

export default Posts

Scrolling to an id

If you'd like to scroll to a specific id on navigation, you can append your URL with a # hash link or just pass a hash link to the href prop. This is possible since <Link> renders to an <a> element.

<Link href="/dashboard#settings">Settings</Link>

// Output
<a href="/dashboard#settings">Settings</a>

Good to know:

• Next.js will scroll to the Page if it is not visible in the viewport upon navigation.

Passing a URL Object

Link can also receive a URL object and it will automatically format it to create the URL string:

import Link from 'next/link'

function Home() {
  return (
    <ul>
      <li>
        <Link
          href={{
            pathname: '/about',
            query: { name: 'test' },
          }}
        >
          About us
        </Link>
      </li>
      <li>
        <Link
          href={{
            pathname: '/blog/[slug]',
            query: { slug: 'my-post' },
          }}
        >
          Blog Post
        </Link>
      </li>
    </ul>
  )
}

export default Home

import Link from 'next/link'

function Home() {
  return (
    <ul>
      <li>
        <Link
          href={{
            pathname: '/about',
            query: { name: 'test' },
          }}
        >
          About us
        </Link>
      </li>
      <li>
        <Link
          href={{
            pathname: '/blog/[slug]',
            query: { slug: 'my-post' },
          }}
        >
          Blog Post
        </Link>
      </li>
    </ul>
  )
}

export default Home

The above example has a link to:

• A predefined route: /about?name=test
• A dynamic route: /blog/my-post

You can use every property as defined in the Node.js URL module documentation.

Replace the URL instead of push

The default behavior of the Link component is to push a new URL into the history stack. You can use the replace prop to prevent adding a new entry, as in the following example:

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" replace>
      About us
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" replace>
      About us
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" replace>
      About us
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/about" replace>
      About us
    </Link>
  )
}

Disable scrolling to the top of the page

The default scrolling behavior of <Link> in Next.js is to maintain scroll position, similar to how browsers handle back and forwards navigation. When you navigate to a new Page, scroll position will stay the same as long as the Page is visible in the viewport.

However, if the Page is not visible in the viewport, Next.js will scroll to the top of the first Page element. If you'd like to disable this behavior, you can pass scroll={false} to the <Link> component, or scroll: false to router.push() or router.replace().

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/#hashid" scroll={false}>
      Disables scrolling to the top
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <Link href="/#hashid" scroll={false}>
      Disables scrolling to the top
    </Link>
  )
}

Using router.push() or router.replace():

// useRouter
import { useRouter } from 'next/navigation'

const router = useRouter()

router.push('/dashboard', { scroll: false })

The default behavior of Link is to scroll to the top of the page. When there is a hash defined it will scroll to the specific id, like a normal <a> tag. To prevent scrolling to the top / hash scroll={false} can be added to Link:

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/#hashid" scroll={false}>
      Disables scrolling to the top
    </Link>
  )
}

import Link from 'next/link'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Link href="/#hashid" scroll={false}>
      Disables scrolling to the top
    </Link>
  )
}

Scroll offset with sticky headers

Because Next.js skips sticky and fixed positioned elements when finding the scroll target, content may end up behind a sticky header after navigation. For example, if your layout has a sticky header:

import './globals.css'

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <header className="sticky top-0 h-16 bg-white">
          {/* Navigation */}
        </header>
        {children}
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

import './globals.css'

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <header className="sticky top-0 h-16 bg-white">
          {/* Navigation */}
        </header>
        {children}
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

You can account for its height using scroll-padding-top on the scroll container:

html {
  scroll-padding-top: 64px; /* Match the height of your sticky header */
}

This is a browser CSS property that offsets scroll-based positioning. It applies whenever Next.js uses the native scrollIntoView() API, including hash fragment (#id) navigation. Alternatively, you can use scroll-margin-top on individual target elements instead of setting a global offset.

Prefetching links in Proxy

It's common to use Proxy for authentication or other purposes that involve rewriting the user to a different page. In order for the <Link /> component to properly prefetch links with rewrites via Proxy, you need to tell Next.js both the URL to display and the URL to prefetch. This is required to avoid un-necessary fetches to proxy to know the correct route to prefetch.

For example, if you want to serve a /dashboard route that has authenticated and visitor views, you can add the following in your Proxy to redirect the user to the correct page:

import { NextResponse } from 'next/server'

export function proxy(request: Request) {
  const nextUrl = request.nextUrl
  if (nextUrl.pathname === '/dashboard') {
    if (request.cookies.authToken) {
      return NextResponse.rewrite(new URL('/auth/dashboard', request.url))
    } else {
      return NextResponse.rewrite(new URL('/public/dashboard', request.url))
    }
  }
}

import { NextResponse } from 'next/server'

export function proxy(request) {
  const nextUrl = request.nextUrl
  if (nextUrl.pathname === '/dashboard') {
    if (request.cookies.authToken) {
      return NextResponse.rewrite(new URL('/auth/dashboard', request.url))
    } else {
      return NextResponse.rewrite(new URL('/public/dashboard', request.url))
    }
  }
}

In this case, you would want to use the following code in your <Link /> component:

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import useIsAuthed from './hooks/useIsAuthed' // Your auth hook

export default function Page() {
  const isAuthed = useIsAuthed()
  const path = isAuthed ? '/auth/dashboard' : '/public/dashboard'
  return (
    <Link as="/dashboard" href={path}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import useIsAuthed from './hooks/useIsAuthed' // Your auth hook

export default function Page() {
  const isAuthed = useIsAuthed()
  const path = isAuthed ? '/auth/dashboard' : '/public/dashboard'
  return (
    <Link as="/dashboard" href={path}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import useIsAuthed from './hooks/useIsAuthed' // Your auth hook

export default function Home() {
  const isAuthed = useIsAuthed()
  const path = isAuthed ? '/auth/dashboard' : '/public/dashboard'
  return (
    <Link as="/dashboard" href={path}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import useIsAuthed from './hooks/useIsAuthed' // Your auth hook

export default function Home() {
  const isAuthed = useIsAuthed()
  const path = isAuthed ? '/auth/dashboard' : '/public/dashboard'
  return (
    <Link as="/dashboard" href={path}>
      Dashboard
    </Link>
  )
}

Good to know: If you're using Dynamic Routes, you'll need to adapt your as and href props. For example, if you have a Dynamic Route like /dashboard/authed/[user] that you want to present differently via proxy, you would write: <Link href={{ pathname: '/dashboard/authed/[user]', query: { user: username } }} as="/dashboard/[user]">Profile</Link>.

Blocking navigation

You can use the onNavigate prop to block navigation when certain conditions are met, such as when a form has unsaved changes. When you need to block navigation across multiple components in your app (like preventing navigation from any link while a form is being edited), React Context provides a clean way to share this blocking state. First, create a context to track the navigation blocking state:

'use client'

import { createContext, useState, useContext } from 'react'

interface NavigationBlockerContextType {
  isBlocked: boolean
  setIsBlocked: (isBlocked: boolean) => void
}

export const NavigationBlockerContext =
  createContext<NavigationBlockerContextType>({
    isBlocked: false,
    setIsBlocked: () => {},
  })

export function NavigationBlockerProvider({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  const [isBlocked, setIsBlocked] = useState(false)

  return (
    <NavigationBlockerContext.Provider value={{ isBlocked, setIsBlocked }}>
      {children}
    </NavigationBlockerContext.Provider>
  )
}

export function useNavigationBlocker() {
  return useContext(NavigationBlockerContext)
}

'use client'

import { createContext, useState, useContext } from 'react'

export const NavigationBlockerContext = createContext({
  isBlocked: false,
  setIsBlocked: () => {},
})

export function NavigationBlockerProvider({ children }) {
  const [isBlocked, setIsBlocked] = useState(false)

  return (
    <NavigationBlockerContext.Provider value={{ isBlocked, setIsBlocked }}>
      {children}
    </NavigationBlockerContext.Provider>
  )
}

export function useNavigationBlocker() {
  return useContext(NavigationBlockerContext)
}

Create a form component that uses the context:

'use client'

import { useNavigationBlocker } from '../contexts/navigation-blocker'

export default function Form() {
  const { setIsBlocked } = useNavigationBlocker()

  return (
    <form
      onSubmit={(e) => {
        e.preventDefault()
        setIsBlocked(false)
      }}
      onChange={() => setIsBlocked(true)}
    >
      <input type="text" name="name" />
      <button type="submit">Save</button>
    </form>
  )
}

'use client'

import { useNavigationBlocker } from '../contexts/navigation-blocker'

export default function Form() {
  const { setIsBlocked } = useNavigationBlocker()

  return (
    <form
      onSubmit={(e) => {
        e.preventDefault()
        setIsBlocked(false)
      }}
      onChange={() => setIsBlocked(true)}
    >
      <input type="text" name="name" />
      <button type="submit">Save</button>
    </form>
  )
}

Create a custom Link component that blocks navigation:

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import { useNavigationBlocker } from '../contexts/navigation-blocker'

interface CustomLinkProps extends React.ComponentProps<typeof Link> {
  children: React.ReactNode
}

export function CustomLink({ children, ...props }: CustomLinkProps) {
  const { isBlocked } = useNavigationBlocker()

  return (
    <Link
      onNavigate={(e) => {
        if (
          isBlocked &&
          !window.confirm('You have unsaved changes. Leave anyway?')
        ) {
          e.preventDefault()
        }
      }}
      {...props}
    >
      {children}
    </Link>
  )
}

'use client'

import Link from 'next/link'
import { useNavigationBlocker } from '../contexts/navigation-blocker'

export function CustomLink({ children, ...props }) {
  const { isBlocked } = useNavigationBlocker()

  return (
    <Link
      onNavigate={(e) => {
        if (
          isBlocked &&
          !window.confirm('You have unsaved changes. Leave anyway?')
        ) {
          e.preventDefault()
        }
      }}
      {...props}
    >
      {children}
    </Link>
  )
}

Create a navigation component:

'use client'

import { CustomLink as Link } from './custom-link'

export default function Nav() {
  return (
    <nav>
      <Link href="/">Home</Link>
      <Link href="/about">About</Link>
    </nav>
  )
}

'use client'

import { CustomLink as Link } from './custom-link'

export default function Nav() {
  return (
    <nav>
      <Link href="/">Home</Link>
      <Link href="/about">About</Link>
    </nav>
  )
}

Finally, wrap your app with the NavigationBlockerProvider in the root layout and use the components in your page:

import { NavigationBlockerProvider } from './contexts/navigation-blocker'

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode
}) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <NavigationBlockerProvider>{children}</NavigationBlockerProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

import { NavigationBlockerProvider } from './contexts/navigation-blocker'

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <NavigationBlockerProvider>{children}</NavigationBlockerProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

Then, use the Nav and Form components in your page:

import Nav from './components/nav'
import Form from './components/form'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Nav />
      <main>
        <h1>Welcome to the Dashboard</h1>
        <Form />
      </main>
    </div>
  )
}

import Nav from './components/nav'
import Form from './components/form'

export default function Page() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Nav />
      <main>
        <h1>Welcome to the Dashboard</h1>
        <Form />
      </main>
    </div>
  )
}

When a user tries to navigate away using CustomLink while the form has unsaved changes, they'll be prompted to confirm before leaving.

Version history

Source: docs/01-app/03-api-reference/02-components/link.mdx