File: securing-pages-and-api-routes.md | Updated: 11/15/2025
š NextAuth.js is now part of Better Auth !
Version: v4
On this page
You can easily protect client and server side rendered pages and API routes with NextAuth.js.
You can find working examples of the approaches shown below in the example project .
tip
The methods getSession() and getToken() both return an object if a session is valid and null if a session is invalid or has expired.
Securing Pagesā
If data on a page is fetched using calls to secure API routes - i.e. routes which use getSession() or getToken() to access the session - you can use the useSession React Hook to secure pages.
pages/client-side-example.js
import { useSession, getSession } from "next-auth/react"export default function Page() { const { data: session, status } = useSession() if (status === "loading") { return <p>Loading...</p> } if (status === "unauthenticated") { return <p>Access Denied</p> } return ( <> <h1>Protected Page</h1> <p>You can view this page because you are signed in.</p> </> )}
With NextAuth.js 4.2.0 and Next.js 12, you can now protect your pages via the middleware pattern more easily. If you would like to protect all pages, you can create a middleware.js file at the root or in the src directory (same level as your pages) which looks like this:
/middleware.js
export { default } from "next-auth/middleware"
If you only want to secure certain pages, export a config object with a matcher:
export { default } from "next-auth/middleware"export const config = { matcher: ["/dashboard(.*)"] }
For the time being, the withAuth middleware only supports "jwt" as session strategy
.
More details can be found here .
tip
To include all dashboard nested routes (sub pages like /dashboard/settings, /dashboard/profile) you can pass matcher: "/dashboard/:path*" to config.
For other patterns check out the Next.js Middleware documentation .
You can protect server side rendered pages using the getServerSession method. This is different from the old getSession() method, in that it does not do an extra fetch out over the internet to confirm data from itself, increasing performance significantly.
You need to add this to every server rendered page you want to protect. Be aware, getServerSession takes slightly different arguments than the method it is replacing, getSession.
pages/server-side-example.js
import { getServerSession } from "next-auth/next"import { authOptions } from "./api/auth/[...nextauth]"import { useSession } from "next-auth/react"export default function Page() { const { data: session } = useSession() if (typeof window === "undefined") return null if (session) { return ( <> <h1>Protected Page</h1> <p>You can view this page because you are signed in.</p> </> ) } return <p>Access Denied</p>}export async function getServerSideProps(context) { return { props: { session: await getServerSession( context.req, context.res, authOptions ), }, }}
tip
When you supply a session prop in _app.js, useSession won't show a loading state, as it'll already have the session available. In this way, you can provide a more seamless user experience.
pages/_app.js
import { SessionProvider } from "next-auth/react"export default function App({ Component, pageProps: { session, ...pageProps },}) { return ( <SessionProvider session={session}> <Component {...pageProps} /> </SessionProvider> )}
Securing API Routesā
You can protect API routes using the getServerSession() method.
pages/api/get-session-example.js
import { getServerSession } from "next-auth/next"import { authOptions } from "./auth/[...nextauth]"export default async (req, res) => { const session = await getServerSession(req, res, authOptions) if (session) { // Signed in console.log("Session", JSON.stringify(session, null, 2)) } else { // Not Signed in res.status(401) } res.end()}
If you are using JSON Web Tokens you can use the getToken() helper to access the contents of the JWT without having to handle JWT decryption / verification yourself. This method can only be used server side.
pages/api/get-token-example.js
// This is an example of how to read a JSON Web Token from an API routeimport { getToken } from "next-auth/jwt"export default async (req, res) => { // If you don't have NEXTAUTH_SECRET set, you will have to pass your secret as `secret` to `getToken` const token = await getToken({ req }) if (token) { // Signed in console.log("JSON Web Token", JSON.stringify(token, null, 2)) } else { // Not Signed in res.status(401) } res.end()}
tip
You can use the getToken() helper function in any application as long as you set the NEXTAUTH_URL environment variable and the application is able to read the JWT cookie (e.g. is on the same domain).
note
Pass getToken the same value for secret as specified in pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js.
See the documentation for the JWT option for more information.