| Current default Node.js version |
| --- |
| **`24.21.0`**<br>Services created before **2026-09-17** have a different default version. [See below](/content/docs/node-version#history-of-default-nodejs-versions/index.html). |

**Set a different Node.js version in _any_ of the following ways** (in descending order of precedence):

1. Set the `NODE_VERSION` environment variable for your service in the [Render Dashboard](https://dashboard.render.com/):

2. Add a file named `.node-version` to the root of your repo. This file contains a single line with the version to use:

.node-version

Copy to clipboard
   
   
   ```
   20.18.0
   ```

3. Add a file named `.nvmrc` to the root of your repo. This file uses the same format as `.node-version`.

4. Specify a Node.js version range in your `package.json` file, under the [`engines`](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v10/configuring-npm/package-json#engines) property:

package.json

jsonCopy to clipboard
   
   
   ```json
   "engines": {
        "node": ">=20.0.0 <22.0.0"
   }
   ```

If there isn't a `package.json` file in your repo's root directory, Render uses the first `package.json` file it finds in a subdirectory.

**Always include an upper bound in your version range.**

An unbounded range (such as `>=20`) always resolves to the [`latest` release](https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest/) of Node.js, which increments its major version over time. This might result in unexpected behavior or incompatibilities with your development version.

You can specify either a semantic version number (such as `18.18.0`) or an alias (such as `lts`).

Render uses the [`node-version-alias`](https://github.com/ehmicky/node-version-alias) module to resolve version aliases and [semver](https://semver.org/) ranges.

## History of default Node.js versions

If you don't set a Node.js version for your service, Render's default version depends on when you originally created the service:

| Service Creation Date | Default Node.js Version |
| --- | --- |
| `2026-09-17` and later | `24.21.0` |
| `2026-04-21` to `2026-09-17` | `24.14.1` |
| `2026-01-14` to `2026-04-21` | `22.22.0` |
| `2025-06-12` to `2026-01-14` | `22.16.0` |
| `2024-12-16` to `2025-06-12` | `22.12.0` |
| `2024-11-24` to `2024-12-16` | `22.11.0` |
| `2024-10-30` to `2024-11-24` | `22.10.0` |
| `2024-07-09` to `2024-10-30` | `20.15.1` |
| `2024-04-17` to `2024-07-09` | `20.12.2` |
| `2024-04-04` to `2024-04-17` | `20.12.1` |
| `2024-03-27` to `2024-04-04` | `20.12.0` |
| `2024-02-23` to `2024-03-27` | `20.11.1` |
| `2023-11-29` to `2024-02-23` | `20.10.0` |
| Before `2023-11-01` | `14.17.0` |