Next.js › Error Handling & Not Found Pages

How do you create a custom 404 not found page in Next.js?

Beginner

Answer

You add a file named not-found.js to your app folder, and Next.js automatically shows it whenever a route does not match any page, or whenever you manually call the notFound function inside a page to indicate that specific content could not be found.
// app/not-found.js
export default function NotFound() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Page Not Found</h2>
      <p>The page you are looking for does not exist.</p>
    </div>
  );
}
Real-world example An online store shows a helpful custom 404 page with a search bar and popular product links whenever a customer visits a broken or outdated product link.

Common follow-ups: How do you trigger the not found page manually from inside a page component?;Can you have different not-found pages for different sections of your site?