How to Get Railway Backend URL for Vercel

This guide shows you how to find your Railway backend URL and set it as NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL in Vercel.

Step 1: Get Railway Backend URL

Go to Railway Dashboard
- Visit https://railway.app/dashboard
- Sign in if needed
Select Your Project
- Click on your project (the one containing your backend service)
Select Your Backend Service
- Click on the backend service (usually named after your repo or "backend")
Get the URL
- Go to the Settings tab
- Scroll down to Networking section
- You'll see a Domain section with your Railway-generated domain
- The URL will look like: your-backend-name-production.up.railway.app or your-backend-name.railway.app
- Copy this entire URL (including the domain)
Alternative: You can also find it in the Deployments tab - click on a successful deployment and look for the domain/URL.
Add HTTPS Protocol
- Make sure to include https:// at the beginning
- Full URL format: https://your-backend-name-production.up.railway.app

Go to Vercel Dashboard
- Visit https://vercel.com/dashboard
- Sign in if needed
Select Your Project
- Click on your frontend project
Go to Settings
- Click on the Settings tab
- Click on Environment Variables in the left sidebar
Add or Update NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL
- Look for NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL in the list
- If it exists, click the Edit button (three dots menu)
- If it doesn't exist, click Add New
- Set the following:
  - Key: NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL
  - Value: https://your-railway-backend-url.railway.app (paste the URL you copied from Railway)
  - Environment: Select all environments (Production, Preview, Development) or just Production
- Click Save
Redeploy
- After saving, Vercel will prompt you to redeploy
- Click Redeploy to apply the new environment variable
- Or go to Deployments tab and click Redeploy on the latest deployment

After setting up Vercel, you also need to update Railway's ALLOWED_ORIGINS to include your Vercel frontend URL:

Go back to Railway
- Navigate to your backend service
- Go to Variables tab
Update ALLOWED_ORIGINS
- Find ALLOWED_ORIGINS variable
- Add your Vercel frontend URL(s) to the comma-separated list:
```
https://your-frontend.vercel.app,https://hivejournal.com,https://www.hivejournal.com
```
- Save the variable
- Railway will automatically redeploy

Railway Backend URL examples:

Vercel Frontend URL examples:

Check Vercel Environment Variables
- Go to Vercel → Your Project → Settings → Environment Variables
- Verify NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL is set correctly
Test the Connection
- Visit your Vercel frontend URL
- Open browser DevTools → Network tab
- Try to use a feature that calls the backend API
- Check if requests are going to your Railway URL
Check Railway Logs
- Go to Railway → Your Service → Deployments
- Click on the latest deployment
- Check logs to see if requests are coming through

Solution: Make sure ALLOWED_ORIGINS in Railway includes your Vercel frontend URL
Format: https://your-frontend.vercel.app,https://your-custom-domain.com

Solution:
- Verify the Railway URL is correct (check for typos)
- Make sure Railway service is running (check deployments)
- Verify the URL includes https:// protocol

Solution:
- Redeploy Vercel after adding/updating environment variables
- NEXT_PUBLIC_* variables are baked into the build, so a new build is required

Solution:
- Make sure your Railway service has been deployed at least once
- Check the Networking section in Settings
- If no domain is shown, Railway may still be deploying - wait a few minutes

Railway URL Location:

Railway Dashboard → Your Project → Your Service → Settings → Networking → Domain

Vercel Environment Variable Location:

Vercel Dashboard → Your Project → Settings → Environment Variables → NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL

Format:

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=https://your-backend-name-production.up.railway.app