--- title: "How to migrate your Netlify environment variables to the new experience" description: "Starting in February 2023, Netlify will begin migrating environment variables to a new secret management experience with better encryption and more flexibility. Control whether environment variables are available for certain features with scopes. Set different values for specific deploy contexts." source: "https://www.netlify.com/blog/coming-soon-to-all-sites-a-new-environment-variable-experience/" last_updated: "2026-07-10T10:20:30.000Z" --- Last year, we released [a new and improved environment variable experience](https://www.netlify.com/blog/scopes-and-contextual-values-for-environment-variables-ga/) which includes: - Stronger encryption for stored secrets - Scopes, so you can limit where environment variable data is available - Contextual values, so you can set a variable’s value based on the deploy context or active branch As of November 2, 2022, this has been generally available to existing teams on a per-site, opt-in basis. New teams get this experience by default. Our intent is to move all remaining teams to this new experience, so your projects benefit from the improved flexibility and security of the environment variables revamp. We will begin migrating accounts to the new environment variables system starting **no sooner than February 20, 2023** beginning with customers on Starter or Pro Plans. **Customers on Enterprise plans can expect a migration in early March.** ![New environment variable experience](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/o0o2tn5x/production/0054ee3446e33950021915d36783b64cf55c53e7-1918x1644.png) ## What will happen when my team is migrated? For sites not already migrated over, we will copy your environment variables to the new system. You will be able to access your variables from **Site Settings > Environment Variables**, the [Netlify CLI](https://cli.netlify.com/commands/env/), and [Environment Variables API](https://open-api.netlify.com/#tag/environmentVariables) endpoints. If you had not previously migrated _any_ sites over, we will also copy over any shared environment variables, which can be accessed at Team Settings > Environment Variables. For all teams, Team Settings > Sites > Shared environment variables will no longer be available. We will not delete data from the previous system until we are confident that sites have been migrated over successfully. Your [team audit log](https://docs.netlify.com/accounts-and-billing/team-management/team-audit-log/#app) will show an entry indicating that all your sites and any shared environment variables have been migrated. Thanks to Netlify’s atomic, immutable deploys, your current production deploy will not be impacted in any way. ## What do I need to do? Generally, not much! Your use case What to do Your team was created on or after November 2, 2022 You’re already on the new experience and there is nothing you need to do. You have some sites migrated already, and your team uses shared environment variables. Make sure all shared env vars you want to keep are listed at **Team Settings > Environment Variables.** You use Netlify Sites API endpoints to modify environment variables. You will need to switch to the new Environment Variables endpoints to manage environment variables going forward. Otherwise… We don’t expect any changes on your part to be necessary, and we hope you enjoy the new experience! ## What if I notice something has gone wrong? Please [contact support](https://www.netlify.com/support/) or create a post on the [free support forums](https://answers.netlify.com/). We will be happy to investigate with you! Generally, we do not anticipate site breakage or data loss. The most likely issue is a need to move environment variable management from [Site API endpoints](https://open-api.netlify.com/#tag/site) to [Environment Variables endpoints](https://open-api.netlify.com/#tag/environmentVariables), if you were previously using Netlify Sites API. ## Can I defer a migration for my team? If you’re a customer on an Enterprise plan, you may work directly with your dedicated account manager to plan a deferred migration. This could be useful for teams with particularly complex setups requiring additional time or coordination. For customers on Starter or Pro plans, we encourage you to move all items to the new experience as soon as possible. Your projects will benefit from improved flexibility and security. And, any new functionality improvements will also be made on top of the new system in the future. Please [reach out](https://www.netlify.com/support/) if you have any questions! ## Looking forward We can’t wait to share the new environment variable experience with all our customers, starting February 20, 2023! If you’d like to take a peek at what’s available, or migrate any sites early, check out [the earlier announcement blog post](https://www.netlify.com/blog/scopes-and-contextual-values-for-environment-variables-ga/#whats-new). Thank you to all those who tried out the beta or shared your experiences. Your open and honest feedback is always appreciated! ### Share - [X (fka Twitter)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Coming soon to all sites: a new environment variable experience&url=https://www.netlify.com/blog/coming-soon-to-all-sites-a-new-environment-variable-experience/) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netlify.com%2Fblog%2Fcoming-soon-to-all-sites-a-new-environment-variable-experience%2F) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.netlify.com/blog/coming-soon-to-all-sites-a-new-environment-variable-experience/) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=Coming soon to all sites: a new environment variable experience+https://www.netlify.com/blog/coming-soon-to-all-sites-a-new-environment-variable-experience/) * * * ### Tags - [changelog](/blog/tags/changelog/) ## Keep reading ![](/images/blog-fallback-thumbnail.svg) News & Announcements November 2, 2022 [ ### Now generally available: Scopes and contextual values for environment variables ](/blog/scopes-and-contextual-values-for-environment-variables-ga) - ![Profile picture of Melanie Richards](/_astro/d92b724b71fa2bff0982537002856fa4b0614316-512x512_ZCJjrO.webp) Melanie Richards ![](/_astro/eb275ddb9290b947ba4c53ac30538c77b44edae9-720x405_1y2MXK.webp) 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 ## Recent posts 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 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 ![](/_astro/3f255b372fa958df35802666ee33b4609b2d71bd-1200x1586_1VtE2D.webp) ### How do the best dev and marketing teams work together? 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