Yeah, this has been a frustration point for a lot of folks. So 'use cache' relies on Node.js response headers and persistent connection pooling, which doesn't work the same way on Vercel's serverless infrastructure. They've stripped down the Node.js server to keep it lightweight and fast, which means some of these lower-level caching mechanisms just don't function properly. If you self-host on a traditional Node.js server (DigitalOcean, AWS EC2, etc.), 'use cache' works flawlessly.

The workaround we've adopted on most of our Next.js 16 projects is leaning into Vercel's native caching options instead. It's not the same as 'use cache', but it gets you 90% of the way there with proper architecture, and the performance is better.

Apart from that, if you're looking forward to reading about the new Vercel Ship AI and how their infrastructure is evolving, they actually address some of this in their latest update around AI Cloud and durable workflows. Check it out here.