Changed an environment variable on Vercel but the live site still uses the old value

What it means in plain English

You fixed a key in your hosting settings, but the live site is still the old build, which has the old value baked in.

Likely causes

• Vercel doesn't apply env var changes to existing deployments; only new ones.
• Browser variables (VITE_, NEXT_PUBLIC_) are frozen into the JavaScript at build time.
• You edited the Preview value but are looking at Production (or vice versa).
• Browser cache serving old files.

How to fix it, step by step

1. Vercel → Project → Settings → Environment Variables: confirm the value and that Production is ticked.
2. Deployments → latest production deployment → ⋯ → Redeploy.
3. Hard-refresh the browser (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+R).
4. Netlify: after changing env vars, trigger a new deploy (Deploys → Trigger deploy).

How to check it worked

• The new deployment's timestamp is after your change.
• The feature that uses the variable now works.

Sources

• https://vercel.com/docs/environment-variables (opens in a new tab)
• https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/environment-variables (opens in a new tab)