This is a classic issue with Next.js Image Optimization on ephemeral file systems like Railway's. Since it works on Vercel and Render, the issue isn't your code; it's likely a bottleneck in the image processing pipeline or a permissions issue with the cache folder.

Here is a technical breakdown and 3 ways to fix this:

1. The "Persistent Cache" Strategy (Recommended)

By default, Railway wipes your local storage on every deploy/restart. If your .next/cache is lost, Next.js tries to re-optimize every image on the fly, hitting CPU/Egress limits and slowing down everything.

Fix: Create a Railway Volume (e.g., 1GB) and mount it to /app/.next/cache. This persists your optimized images across restarts and drastically reduces the load.

2. The sharp Dependency Check

Next.js uses a JS-based optimizer if sharp isn't found, which is extremely slow and memory-intensive.

Fix: Ensure sharp is explicitly installed in your package.json (npm install sharp). Also, check your Railway logs for "native-image-loader" warnings.

3. External Image Provider (The Pro Move)

If your traffic is high, offloading image optimization is better than using Railway's CPU.

Quick Fix: In next.config.js, set:

images: {

unoptimized: true,}

If this makes the site fast again, then you've confirmed that the Image Optimization engine is the culprit.

Summary: Most likely, your instance is hitting a 'cold start' on image generation because the cache is being wiped or is inaccessible. Try the Volume Mount first—it’s the most 'Railway-native' way to solve this.

AI