`updateUser()`

Updates a user with a given ID with attribute values provided in a params object.

The provided ID must be valid, otherwise an error will be thrown.


const userId = 'my-user-id';
 
const params = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Wick' }; 
 
const user = await clerkClient.users.updateUser(userId, params);

`UpdateUserParams`

Name	Type	Description
`userId`	`string`	The ID of the user to update.
`firstName?`	`string`	The user's first name.
`lastName?`	`string`	The user's last name.
`username?`	`string`	The user's username.
`password?`	`string`	The plaintext password to give the user.
`primaryEmailAddressID?`	`string`	Email address that will replace user's current primary email address. Must be unique across your instance.
`primaryPhoneNumberID?`	`string`	Phone number that will replace user's current primary phone number. Must be unique across your instance.
`primaryWeb3WalletID?`	`string`	Web3 wallet that will replace user's current primary web3 wallet. Must be unique across your instance.
`externalId?`	`string`	An external identifier for the user. Must be unique across your instance.
`publicMetadata?`	`Record<string, unknown>`	Metadata saved on the user, that is visible to both your Frontend and Backend APIs.
`privateMetadata?`	`Record<string, unknown>`	Metadata saved on the user that is only visible to your Backend API.
`unsafeMetadata?`	`Record<string, unknown>`	Metadata saved on the user, that can be updated from both the Frontend and Backend APIs. Note: Since this data can be modified from the frontend, it is not guaranteed to be safe.

Examples

app/page.[jsx/tsx]
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import { getAuth, clerkClient } from '@clerk/nextjs/server';
 
// If you use `request` you don't need the type
export async function POST(req: NextRequest) {
 
  // Get the user ID from the session
  const { userId } = getAuth(req);
 
  if (!userId) return NextResponse.redirect('/sign-in');
 
  // The user attributes to update
  const params = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Wick' };
 
  const updatedUser = await clerkClient.users.updateUser(userId, params);
 
  return NextResponse.json({ updatedUser });
}

pages/api/updateUser.[jsx/tsx]
import { clerkClient, getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server';
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next';
 
export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
 
  // Get the user ID from the session
  const { userId } = getAuth(req);
 
  if (!userId) {
    return res.status(500).json({ error: "No valid user" })
  }
 
  // The user attributes to update
  const params = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Wick' };
 
  const updatedUser = await clerkClient.users.updateUser(userId, params);
 
  return res.status(200).json({ updatedUser });
}

updateUser.js
import clerkClient from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node';
 
app.post('/api/update-user',
  // ClerkExpressRequireAuth returns an error for unauthorized requests
  ClerkExpressRequireAuth(),
  // Optionally ClerkExpressWithAuth returns an empty user with no error
  // ClerkExpressWithAuth(),
  async (req, res) => {
  
    // Get the user ID from req.auth
    const userId = req.auth.userId
 
    // The user attributes to update
    const params = { firstName: "John", lastName: "Wick" }
 
    const updatedUser = await clerkClient.users.updateUser(userId, params)
 
    res.json({ updatedUser })
  })

app/routes/profile.[jsx/tsx]
import { createClerkClient } from "@clerk/remix/api.server"
import { getAuth } from "@clerk/remix/ssr.server"
import { ActionFunction, json } from "@remix-run/node"
 
export const action: ActionFunction = async (req) => {
  
  // Get the user ID from the session
  const { userId } = await getAuth(req)
 
  // The user attributes to update
  const params = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Wick' };
 
  const updatedUser = await createClerkClient({ secretKey: process.env.CLERK_SECRET_KEY }).users.updateUser(userId, params)
 
  return json({ updatedUser })
}