Summary
On October 8, 2026, Vercel added a skipMiddlewareRequestBody setting that stops forwarding the client request body to Routing Middleware, reducing Fast Origin Transfer usage and improving Time to First Byte for routes that don't need the body.
What changed
Vercel introduced a skipMiddlewareRequestBody option that prevents the client request body from being forwarded to Routing Middleware. When enabled, the body is not sent to middleware, lowering Fast Origin Transfer and reducing latency before the first byte.
Why it matters
Routing Middleware sits in the hot path of every matched request, and forwarding request bodies it never reads wastes billable transfer and adds latency. An opt-out gives teams a direct lever over both cost and TTFB, reflecting Vercel's continued move to expose and price fine-grained data-transfer behavior as middleware-heavy and AI-backed apps push request volumes up.
Evidence excerpt
A new skipMiddlewareRequestBody setting stops forwarding client request bodies to Routing Middleware, which reduces Fast Origin Transfer usage and can improve Time to First Byte.