--- id: 'functions' title: 'Edge Functions' description: 'Globally distributed TypeScript functions.' subtitle: 'Globally distributed TypeScript functions.' sidebar_label: 'Overview' tocVideo: 'za_loEtS4gs' --- Edge Functions are server-side TypeScript functions, distributed globally at the edge—close to your users. They can be used for listening to webhooks or integrating your Supabase project with third-parties [like Stripe](https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/stripe-webhooks). Edge Functions are developed using [Deno](https://deno.com), which offers a few benefits to you as a developer: - It is open source. - It is portable. Supabase Edge Functions run locally, and on any other Deno-compatible platform (including self-hosted infrastructure). - It is TypeScript first and supports WASM. - Edge Functions are globally distributed for low-latency. ## How it works - **Request enters an edge gateway (relay)** — the gateway routes traffic, handles auth headers/JWT validation, and applies routing/traffic rules. - **Auth & policies are applied** — the gateway (or your function) can validate Supabase JWTs, apply rate-limits, and centralize security checks before executing code. - **[Edge runtime](https://github.com/supabase/edge-runtime) executes your function** — the function runs on a regionally-distributed Edge Runtime node closest to the user for minimal latency. - **Integrations & data access** — functions commonly call Supabase APIs (Auth, Postgres, Storage) or third-party APIs. For Postgres, prefer connection strategies suited for edge/serverless environments (see the `connect-to-postgres` guide). - **Observability and logs** — invocations emit logs and metrics you can explore in the dashboard or downstream monitoring (Sentry, etc.). - **Response returns via the gateway** — the gateway forwards the response back to the client and records request metadata. ## Quick technical notes - **Runtime:** Supabase Edge Runtime (Deno compatible runtime with TypeScript first). Functions are simple `.ts` files that export a handler. - **Local dev parity:** Use Supabase CLI for a local runtime similar to production for faster iteration (`supabase functions serve` command). - **Global deployment:** Deploy your Edge Functions via Supabase Dashboard, CLI or MCP. - **Cold starts & concurrency:** cold starts are possible — design for short-lived, idempotent operations. Heavy long-running jobs should be moved to [background workers](/docs/guides/functions/background-tasks). - **Database connections:** treat Postgres like a remote, pooled service — use connection pools or serverless-friendly drivers. - **Secrets:** store credentials in Supabase [project secrets](/docs/reference/cli/supabase-secrets) and access them via environment variables. ## When to use Edge Functions - Authenticated or public HTTP endpoints that need low latency. - Webhook receivers (Stripe, GitHub, etc.). - On-demand image or Open Graph generation. - Small AI inference tasks or orchestrating calls to external LLM APIs (like OpenAI) - Sending transactional emails. - Building messaging bots for Slack, Discord, etc.
## Examples Check out the [Edge Function Examples](https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions) in our GitHub repository.
{[ { name: 'With supabase-js', description: 'Use the Supabase client inside your Edge Function.', href: '/guides/functions/auth', }, { name: 'Type-Safe SQL with Kysely', description: 'Combining Kysely with Deno Postgres gives you a convenient developer experience for interacting directly with your Postgres database.', href: '/guides/functions/kysely-postgres', }, { name: 'Monitoring with Sentry', description: 'Monitor Edge Functions with the Sentry Deno SDK.', href: '/guides/functions/examples/sentry-monitoring', }, { name: 'With CORS headers', description: 'Send CORS headers for invoking from the browser.', href: '/guides/functions/cors', }, { name: 'React Native with Stripe', description: 'Full example for using Supabase and Stripe, with Expo.', href: 'https://github.com/supabase-community/expo-stripe-payments-with-supabase-functions', }, { name: 'Flutter with Stripe', description: 'Full example for using Supabase and Stripe, with Flutter.', href: 'https://github.com/supabase-community/flutter-stripe-payments-with-supabase-functions', }, { name: 'Building a RESTful Service API', description: 'Learn how to use HTTP methods and paths to build a RESTful service for managing tasks.', href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/blob/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/restful-tasks/index.ts', }, { name: 'Working with Supabase Storage', description: 'An example on reading a file from Supabase Storage.', href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/blob/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/read-storage/index.ts', }, { name: 'Open Graph Image Generation', description: 'Generate Open Graph images with Deno and Supabase Edge Functions.', href: '/guides/functions/examples/og-image', }, { name: 'OG Image Generation & Storage CDN Caching', description: 'Cache generated images with Supabase Storage CDN.', href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/og-image-with-storage-cdn', }, { name: 'Get User Location', description: `Get user location data from user's IP address.`, href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/location', }, { name: 'Cloudflare Turnstile', description: `Protecting Forms with Cloudflare Turnstile.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/cloudflare-turnstile', }, { name: 'Connect to Postgres', description: `Connecting to Postgres from Edge Functions.`, href: '/guides/functions/connect-to-postgres', }, { name: 'GitHub Actions', description: `Deploying Edge Functions with GitHub Actions.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/github-actions', }, { name: 'Oak Server Middleware', description: `Request Routing with Oak server middleware.`, href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/oak-server', }, { name: 'Hugging Face', description: `Access 100,000+ Machine Learning models.`, href: '/guides/ai/examples/huggingface-image-captioning', }, { name: 'Amazon Bedrock', description: `Amazon Bedrock Image Generator`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/amazon-bedrock-image-generator', }, { name: 'OpenAI', description: `Using OpenAI in Edge Functions.`, href: '/guides/ai/examples/openai', }, { name: 'Stripe Webhooks', description: `Handling signed Stripe Webhooks with Edge Functions.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/stripe-webhooks', }, { name: 'Send emails', description: `Send emails in Edge Functions with Resend.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/send-emails', }, { name: 'Web Stream', description: `Server-Sent Events in Edge Functions.`, href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/streams', }, { name: 'Puppeteer', description: `Generate screenshots with Puppeteer.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/screenshots', }, { name: 'Discord Bot', description: `Building a Slash Command Discord Bot with Edge Functions.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/discord-bot', }, { name: 'Telegram Bot', description: `Building a Telegram Bot with Edge Functions.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/telegram-bot', }, { name: 'Upload File', description: `Process multipart/form-data.`, href: 'https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/examples/edge-functions/supabase/functions/file-upload-storage', }, { name: 'Upstash Redis', description: `Build an Edge Functions Counter with Upstash Redis.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/upstash-redis', }, { name: 'Rate Limiting', description: `Rate Limiting Edge Functions with Upstash Redis.`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/rate-limiting', }, { name: 'Slack Bot Mention Edge Function', description: `Slack Bot handling Slack mentions in Edge Function`, href: '/guides/functions/examples/slack-bot-mention', }, ].map((x) => (
{x.description}
))}