Session Management

Better Auth manages session using a traditional cookie-based session management. The session is stored in a cookie and is sent to the server on every request. The server then verifies the session and returns the user data if the session is valid.

Session table

The session table stores the session data. The session table has the following fields:

• id: Unique identifier for the session.
• token: The session token. Which is also used as the session cookie.
• userId: The user ID of the user.
• expiresAt: The expiration date of the session.
• ipAddress: The IP address of the user.
• userAgent: The user agent of the user. It stores the user agent header from the request.

Session Expiration

The session expires after 7 days by default. But whenever the session is used and the updateAge is reached, the session expiration is updated to the current time plus the expiresIn value.

You can change both the expiresIn and updateAge values by passing the session object to the auth configuration.

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    //... other config options
    session: {
        expiresIn: 60 * 60 * 24 * 7, // 7 days
        updateAge: 60 * 60 * 24 // 1 day (every 1 day the session expiration is updated)
    }
})

Disable Session Refresh

You can disable session refresh so that the session is not updated regardless of the updateAge option.

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    //... other config options
    session: {
        disableSessionRefresh: true
    }
})

Session Freshness

Some endpoints in Better Auth require the session to be fresh. A session is considered fresh if its createdAt is within the freshAge limit. By default, the freshAge is set to 1 day (60 * 60 * 24).

You can customize the freshAge value by passing a session object in the auth configuration:

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    //... other config options
    session: {
        freshAge: 60 * 5 // 5 minutes (the session is fresh if created within the last 5 minutes)
    }
})

To disable the freshness check, set freshAge to 0:

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    //... other config options
    session: {
        freshAge: 0 // Disable freshness check
    }
})

Session Management

Better Auth provides a set of functions to manage sessions.

Get Session

The getSession function retrieves the current active session.

import { authClient } from "@/lib/client"

const { data: session } = await authClient.getSession()

To learn how to customize the session response check the Customizing Session Response section.

Use Session

The useSession action provides a reactive way to access the current session.

import { authClient } from "@/lib/client"

const { data: session } = authClient.useSession()

List Sessions

The listSessions function returns a list of sessions that are active for the user.

import { authClient } from "@/lib/client"

const sessions = await authClient.listSessions()

Revoke Session

When a user signs out of a device, the session is automatically ended. However, you can also end a session manually from any device the user is signed into.

To end a session, use the revokeSession function. Just pass the session token as a parameter.

await authClient.revokeSession({
    token: "session-token"
})

Revoke Other Sessions

To revoke all other sessions except the current session, you can use the revokeOtherSessions function.

await authClient.revokeOtherSessions()

Revoke All Sessions

To revoke all sessions, you can use the revokeSessions function.

await authClient.revokeSessions()

Revoking Sessions on Password Change

You can revoke all sessions when the user changes their password by passing revokeOtherSessions as true on changePassword function.

await authClient.changePassword({
    newPassword: newPassword,
    currentPassword: currentPassword,
    revokeOtherSessions: true,
})

Session Caching

Cookie Cache

Calling your database every time useSession or getSession is invoked isn't ideal, especially if sessions don't change frequently. Cookie caching handles this by storing session data in a short-lived, signed cookie—similar to how JWT access tokens are used with refresh tokens.

When cookie caching is enabled, the server can check session validity from the cookie itself instead of hitting the database each time. The cookie is signed to prevent tampering, and a short maxAge ensures that the session data gets refreshed regularly. If a session is revoked or expires, the cookie will be invalidated automatically.

To turn on cookie caching, just set session.cookieCache in your auth config:

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            enabled: true,
            maxAge: 5 * 60 // Cache duration in seconds (5 minutes)
        }
    }
});

Cookie Cache Strategies

Better Auth supports three different encoding strategies for cookie cache:

• compact (default): Uses base64url encoding with HMAC-SHA256 signature. Most compact format with no JWT spec overhead. Best for performance and size.
• jwt: Standard JWT with HMAC-SHA256 signature (HS256). Signed but not encrypted - readable by anyone but tamper-proof. Follows JWT spec for interoperability.
• jwe: Uses JWE (JSON Web Encryption) with A256CBC-HS512 and HKDF key derivation. Fully encrypted tokens - neither readable nor tamperable. Most secure but largest size.

Comparison:

export const auth = betterAuth({
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            enabled: true,
            maxAge: 5 * 60,
            strategy: "compact" // or "jwt" or "jwe"
        }
    }
});

Note: All strategies are cryptographically secure and prevent tampering. The main differences are size, readability, and JWT spec compliance.

When to use each:

• Use compact when you need maximum performance and smallest cookie size. Best for most applications where cookies are only used internally by Better Auth.
• Use jwt when you need JWT compatibility for external systems, or when you want standard JWT tokens that can be verified by third-party tools. The tokens are readable (base64-encoded JSON) but tamper-proof.
• Use jwe when you need maximum security and want to hide session data from the client. The tokens are fully encrypted and cannot be read without the secret key. Use this for sensitive data or compliance requirements.

If you want to disable returning from the cookie cache when fetching the session, you can pass disableCookieCache:true this will force the server to fetch the session from the database and also refresh the cookie cache.

const session = await authClient.getSession({ query: {
    disableCookieCache: true
}})

or on the server

await auth.api.getSession({
    query: {
        disableCookieCache: true,
    }, 
    headers: req.headers, // pass the headers
});

Stateless Session Management

Better Auth supports stateless session management without any database. This means that the session data is stored in a signed/encrypted cookie and the server never queries a database to validate sessions - it simply verifies the cookie signature and checks expiration.

Basic Stateless Setup

If you don't pass a database configuration, Better Auth will automatically enable stateless mode.

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    // No database configuration
    socialProviders: {
        google: {
            clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID,
            clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET,
        },
    },
});

To manually enable stateless mode, you need to configure cookieCache and account with the following options:

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            enabled: true,
            maxAge: 7 * 24 * 60 * 60, // 7 days cache duration
            strategy: "jwe", // can be "jwt" or "compact"
            refreshCache: true, // Enable stateless refresh
        },
    },
    account: {
        storeStateStrategy: "cookie",
        storeAccountCookie: true, // Store account data after OAuth flow in a cookie (useful for database-less flows)
    }
});

Understanding refreshCache

The refreshCache option controls automatic cookie refresh before expiry without querying any database:

• false (default): No automatic refresh. When the cookie cache expires (reaches maxAge), it will attempt to fetch from the database if available.
• true: Enable automatic refresh with default settings. Refreshes when 80% of maxAge is reached (20% time remaining).
• object: Custom refresh configuration with updateAge property.

export const auth = betterAuth({
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            enabled: true,
            maxAge: 300, // 5 minutes
            refreshCache: {
                updateAge: 60 // Refresh when 60 seconds remain before expiry
            }
        }
    }
});

Versioning Stateless Sessions

One of the biggest drawbacks of stateless sessions is that you can't invalidate session easily. To solve this with better auth, if you would like to invalidate all sessions, you can change the version of the cookie cache and re-deploy your application.

export const auth = betterAuth({
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            version: "2", // Change the version to invalidate all sessions
        }
    }
});

Stateless with Secondary Storage

You can combine stateless sessions with secondary storage (Redis, etc.) for the best of both worlds:

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
import { redis } from "./redis"

export const auth = betterAuth({
    // No primary database needed
    secondaryStorage: {
        get: async (key) => await redis.get(key),
        set: async (key, value, ttl) => await redis.set(key, value, "EX", ttl),
        delete: async (key) => await redis.del(key)
    },
    session: {
        cookieCache: {
            maxAge: 5 * 60, // 5 minutes (short-lived cookie)
            refreshCache: false // Disable stateless refresh
        }
    }
});

This setup:

• Uses cookies for session validation (no DB queries)
• Uses Redis for storing session data and refreshing the cookie cache before expiry
• You can revoke sessions from the secondary storage and the cookie cache will be invalidated on refresh

Customizing Session Response

When you call getSession or useSession, the session data is returned as a user and session object. You can customize this response using the customSession plugin.

import { customSession } from "better-auth/plugins";

export const auth = betterAuth({
    plugins: [
        customSession(async ({ user, session }) => {
            const roles = findUserRoles(session.session.userId);
            return {
                roles,
                user: {
                    ...user,
                    newField: "newField",
                },
                session
            };
        }),
    ],
});

This will add roles and user.newField to the session response.

Infer on the Client

import { customSessionClient } from "better-auth/client/plugins";
import type { auth } from "@/lib/auth"; // Import the auth instance as a type

const authClient = createAuthClient({
    plugins: [customSessionClient<typeof auth>()],
});

const { data } = authClient.useSession();
const { data: sessionData } = await authClient.getSession();
// data.roles
// data.user.newField

Caveats on Customizing Session Response

1. The passed session object to the callback does not infer fields added by plugins.

However, as a workaround, you can pull up your auth options and pass it to the plugin to infer the fields.

import { betterAuth, BetterAuthOptions } from "better-auth";

const options = {
  //...config options
  plugins: [
    //...plugins 
  ]
} satisfies BetterAuthOptions;

export const auth = betterAuth({
    ...options,
    plugins: [
        ...(options.plugins ?? []),
        customSession(async ({ user, session }, ctx) => {
            // now both user and session will infer the fields added by plugins and your custom fields
            return {
                user,
                session
            }
        }, options), // pass options here
    ]
})

2. When your server and client code are in separate projects or repositories, and you cannot import the auth instance as a type reference, type inference for custom session fields will not work on the client side.
3. Session caching, including secondary storage or cookie cache, does not include custom fields. Each time the session is fetched, your custom session function will be called.

Mutating the list-device-sessions endpoint The /multi-session/list-device-sessions endpoint from the multi-session plugin is used to list the devices that the user is signed into.

You can mutate the response of this endpoint by passing the shouldMutateListDeviceSessionsEndpoint option to the customSession plugin.

By default, we do not mutate the response of this endpoint.

import { customSession } from "better-auth/plugins";

export const auth = betterAuth({
    plugins: [
        customSession(async ({ user, session }, ctx) => {
            return {
                user,
                session
            }
        }, {}, { shouldMutateListDeviceSessionsEndpoint: true }), 
    ],
});