# `Error: Connection terminated unexpectedly / ETIMEDOUT connecting to *.neon.tech`

**Where it appears:** Terminal or Vercel runtime logs

**What it means:** Your app tried to open a connection to Neon and didn't get an answer in time.

## Likely causes

- Using a traditional long-lived TCP Postgres client in serverless routes instead of `@neondatabase/serverless`.
- The Neon compute was waking up from scale-to-zero and the client timeout was set too low.

## Message for your agent

```text
Connecting to Neon timed out. Confirm we use `@neondatabase/serverless` and the pooled Neon connection string, and retry.
```

**Prevention:** Always connect to Neon in Next.js on Vercel using `@neondatabase/serverless`.

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Source: [Agentic Makers](https://agenticmakers.app/en/help/errors/neon-database-connection-timed-out) · License: CC BY 4.0