diff --git a/app/api/trpc-node/[trpc]/route.ts b/app/api/trpc-node/[trpc]/route.ts
index acbee864a..6a8f539b2 100644
--- a/app/api/trpc-node/[trpc]/route.ts
+++ b/app/api/trpc-node/[trpc]/route.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ const handlerNodeRoutes = (req: Request) =>
   });
 
 export const runtime = 'nodejs';
-// noinspection JSUnusedGlobalSymbols
-export const maxDuration = 25; // the Browsing module has a timeout of ~10s, so we increase 15 (default) -> 25
+// NOTE: the following statement breaks the build on non-pro deployments, and conditionals don't work either
+//       so we resorted to raising the timeout from 10s to 25s in the vercel.json file instead
+// export const maxDuration = 25;
 export const dynamic = 'force-dynamic';
 export { handlerNodeRoutes as GET, handlerNodeRoutes as POST };
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/vercel.json b/vercel.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..024c88738
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vercel.json
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+{
+  "functions": {
+    "app/api/trpc-node/**/*": {
+      "maxDuration": 25
+    }
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file