Generating PDFs in Next.js Without Puppeteer

The problem with Puppeteer in Next.js

If you're building a Next.js app and need to generate PDFs, your first instinct might be to reach for Puppeteer. Here's why that's usually a bad idea:

Serverless deployment (Vercel, Netlify)

Puppeteer requires a Chromium binary. On Vercel, the function bundle limit is 50MB (compressed). Chromium is 130MB compressed. It literally doesn't fit. You can use @sparticuz/chromium for a stripped-down version, but it's fragile, slow to cold-start, and adds significant complexity.

API routes aren't designed for long-running processes

Vercel functions timeout after 10-60 seconds depending on your plan. Launching Chromium, rendering a page, and generating a PDF can easily exceed that — especially under load.

Memory limits

Serverless functions typically have 1-3GB of memory. Chromium alone needs 200-400MB. Your actual application code gets whatever's left.

The solution: API-based generation

Instead of running a browser in your Next.js API route, call pdfRelay:

// app/api/generate-invoice/route.ts
export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const { invoiceData } = await request.json();

  const response = await fetch('https://pdfrelay.com/api/v1/convert', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.PDFRELAY_API_KEY}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      source: 'html',
      content: renderInvoiceHTML(invoiceData),
    }),
  });

  const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();
  return new Response(pdf, {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/pdf' },
  });
}

This works on Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, or any hosting. No Chromium, no memory issues, no timeouts. Just standard HTML that your Rust-powered PDF engine converts in milliseconds.