--- title: "Enable Gatsby Incremental Builds on Netlify" description: "Gatsby has added support for incremental builds. Learn how you can take advantage of it to speed up your Gatsby builds on Netlify today!" source: "https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/04/23/enable-gatsby-incremental-builds-on-netlify/" last_updated: "2026-07-14T11:18:16.000Z" --- Gatsby has a great feature called [incremental builds](https://www.gatsbyjs.com/blog/2020-04-22-announcing-incremental-builds/), an improvement that reduces the amount of work required to build a Gatsby site. In this post, we’ll learn **how to ensure you’re able to reliably use Gatsby incremental builds on Netlify.** ## Step 1: Upgrade to a recent Gatsby version At the time of writing, Gatsby 5 is the latest Gatsby version and should be used. Versions below Gatsby 4 have been dropped from the official support cycle. Incremental build should work from Gatsby v2.20.4, but this guide might not apply or work correctly for those sites. ``` # this will upgrade Gatsby to v5npm install gatsby@5 ``` ## Step 2: Make sure you’re using `gatsby-adapter-netlify` On Netlify, since Gatsby v5.12, Gatsby would automatically use `gatsby-adapter-netlify` and handle the required configuration for you. If you’re using Gatsby versions lower than v5.12, make sure you’re using `gatsby-plugin-netlify` and `@netlify/plugin-gatsby`. ## Step 3: Make a change in your CMS and see the incremental builds! Once we’ve made the above changes, our Gatsby site will run with incremental builds enabled! This means that changes from a supported CMS - Gatsby supports Contentful, WordPress, Drupal and some other CMSs officially, while there might be community-maintained source-plugins available for other CMSs — Gatsby will only rebuild the parts of the site affected by the changed data. If we look at our build logs, the first build will show a full build with all of our pages: ``` 2:00:43 PM: info Done building in 41.429647017 sec2:00:43 PM: info Built pages:2:00:43 PM: Updated page: /design-research-program2:00:43 PM: Updated page: /offline-plugin-app-shell-fallback/2:00:43 PM: Updated page: /2:00:43 PM: Updated page: /404/2:00:43 PM: Updated page: /404.html ``` On repeat builds, we can see that the Gatsby build is much faster and only rebuilds the page that was changed: ``` 2:03:56 PM: info Done building in 17.691847403 sec2:03:56 PM: info Built pages:2:03:56 PM: Updated page: /design-research-program ``` ## You can use Gatsby incremental builds today! If you’ve got a Gatsby site, you can enable incremental builds today! Give it a try, and enjoy builds that make your blazing fast Gatsby site even more blazinger! 🔥 ### Share - [X (fka Twitter)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Enable Gatsby Incremental Builds on Netlify &url=https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/04/23/enable-gatsby-incremental-builds-on-netlify//) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netlify.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F04%2F23%2Fenable-gatsby-incremental-builds-on-netlify%2F%2F) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/04/23/enable-gatsby-incremental-builds-on-netlify//) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=Enable Gatsby Incremental Builds on Netlify +https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/04/23/enable-gatsby-incremental-builds-on-netlify//) * * * ### Tags - [Gatsby](/blog/tags/gatsby/) - [Performance](/blog/tags/performance/) ## Keep reading ![](/images/blog-fallback-thumbnail.svg) Guides & Tutorials March 23, 2020 [ ### Migrate Your WordPress Site to the Jamstack ](/blog/2020/03/23/migrate-your-wordpress-site-to-the-jamstack) - ![Profile picture of Jason Lengstorf](/_astro/11b8e51d90b26838de71904294430279b7099995-700x700_1R7sJe.webp) Jason Lengstorf ![](/_astro/3f45eb6eda4ea8814be310e3df4a7883a5bd9ba0-1200x675_ZcBDUS.webp) Guides & Tutorials May 15, 2026 [ ### How to build a real-time AI chatbot in minutes with Netlify Agent Runners (no backend) ](/blog/how-to-build-a-real-time-ai-chatbot-in-minutes-with-netlify-agent-runners-no-backend) - ![Profile picture of Nahrin Jalal](/_astro/f0e7c8f227a03fe58340c99ef5439d5a896c0733-272x272_Z23kDpD.webp) Nahrin Jalal ## Recent posts News & Announcements July 13, 2026 [ ### Netlify inside of Claude Design ](/blog/netlify-inside-of-claude-design) - ![Profile picture of Sean Roberts](/_astro/bbf2243f8171dbddd80ab2103622106cef84d125-512x512_Z1d2LKE.webp) Sean Roberts News & Announcements June 25, 2026 [ ### Netlify Functions, designed for Agent Experience ](/blog/netlify-functions-designed-for-agent-experience) - ![Profile picture of Eduardo Bouças](/_astro/52958f21e8450baf6d8e60302341a984e220c0cd-512x512_13VDlu.webp) Eduardo Bouças News & Announcements June 24, 2026 [ ### How we measure Netlify’s Agent Experience ](/blog/how-we-measure-netlify-agent-experience) - ![Profile picture of Sean Roberts](/_astro/bbf2243f8171dbddd80ab2103622106cef84d125-512x512_Z1d2LKE.webp) Sean Roberts ![](/_astro/3f255b372fa958df35802666ee33b4609b2d71bd-1200x1586_1VtE2D.webp) ### How do the best dev and marketing teams work together? 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