The OOMKilled Mystery: How Next.js Caching Breaks Containerized Deployments

Developers deploying Next.js to Kubernetes frequently encounter OOMKilled crashes despite having no memory leaks in their code. The root cause is Next.js's aggressive built-in caching—particularly its Data Cache and Full Route Cache—which grow unbounded under Kubernetes's hard memory limits. Understanding this distinction is essential for building cost-effective and reliable containerized applications.