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Routing

The App Router in the app/ directory is the current recommended Next.js router. Its components are React Server Components by default.

officialNext.js docs (current)confidence 97%current as of Aug 2026

The App Router is the current recommended way to build a Next.js application. Routes live in the app/ directory where a folder is a route segment that a page.tsx renders. Components under app/ run as React Server Components unless you mark them with the use client directive.

Related claims

supersedes

Next.js routes live in the pages/ directory. You fetch data with getServerSideProps or getStaticProps.

The App Router replaced the Pages Router as the default. getServerSideProps and getStaticProps do not exist under app/ so the older data functions no longer apply. Old tutorials still teach pages/.