Debugging Next.js: How to fix the `Already 10 Prisma Clients are actively running` error

Join the AI Workshop to learn more about AI and how it can be applied to web development. Next cohort February 1st, 2026

The AI-first Web Development BOOTCAMP cohort starts February 24th, 2026. 10 weeks of intensive training and hands-on projects.


I was using Prisma in my Next.js app and I was doing it wrong.

I was initializing a new PrismaClient object in every page:

import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client'
const prisma = new PrismaClient()

After some point, during app usage, I received the error Already 10 Prisma Clients are actively running and also a Address already in use.

To fix this, I exported this Prisma initialization to a separate file, lib/prisma.js:

import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client'

let prisma

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production') {
  prisma = new PrismaClient()
} else {
  if (!global.prisma) {
    global.prisma = new PrismaClient()
  }
  prisma = global.prisma
}

export default prisma

The production check is done because in development, npm run dev clears the Node.js cache at runtime, and this causes a new PrismaClient initialization each time due to hot reloading, so we’d not solve the problem.

I took this code from https://www.prisma.io/docs/support/help-articles/nextjs-prisma-client-dev-practices

Finally I imported the exported prisma object in my pages:

import prisma from 'lib/prisma'

Lessons in this unit:

0: Introduction
1: Blank page after router.push() in Next.js?
2: How to fix the error `PrismaClient is unable to be run in the browser` in Next.js
3: Next.js, blank page after calling `res.redirect()`
4: Next.js, how to fix the error `Constructor requires 'new' operator`
5: Next.js, fix the `module not found` error
6: How to fix the `can't resolve module` error in Next.js
7: How to fix error serializing Date object JSON in Next.js
8: How to fix the `unable to resolve dependency tree` PostCSS and Tailwind issue in Next.js
9: Fix “Module not found: Can't resolve encoding” in Next.js
10: How to fix Your custom PostCSS configuration must export a `plugins` key.
11: Next.js, what to do when the state of a component is not refreshed when navigating
12: Revalidation and ISR gotcha on Vercel
13: ▶︎ How to fix the `Already 10 Prisma Clients are actively running` error