How to Expire Session After 1 Min of Inactivity in express-session of Express.js ?

Last Updated : 08 Jan, 2025

To automatically expire sessions after 1 minute of inactivity in an Express.js application using express-session, configure the session settings with the cookie.maxAge and implement session touch logic to track activity.

Approach

To expire the session after 1 min of inactivity in the express-session of Express.js we use expires: 60000 in the middleware function.

Syntax:

const session = require('express-session')

Expiring sessions after inactivity helps secure your applications.

Steps to Implement Auto-Expire Session in Express

Step 1: Create an “app.js” file and initialize your project with npm.

npm init

Step 2: Now install two npm packages: “express” and “express-session“.

npm install express express-session

Project Structure:

Updates dependencies in package.json file

"dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.19.2",
    "express-session": "^1.18.0",
}

Example: The below example illustrates the above approach.

Node

// Filename - app.js

// Call Express Api.
const express = require('express'),

// Call express Session Api.
const session = require('express-session'),

const app = express();

// Session Setup
app.use(
    session({
    
        // It holds the secret key for session
        secret: "I am girl",

        // Forces the session to be saved
        // back to the session store
        resave: true,

        // Forces a session that is "uninitialized"
        // to be saved to the store
        saveUninitialized: false,
        cookie: {

            // Session expires after 1 min of inactivity.
            expires: 60000
        }
    })
);

// Get function in which send session as routes.
app.get('/session', function (req, res, next) {

    if (req.session.views) {

        // Increment the number of views.
        req.session.views++

        // Session will expires after 1 min
        // of in activity
        res.write('<p> Session expires after 
                    1 min of in activity: ' +
                    (req.session.cookie.expires) + '</p>'
        )
        res.end()
    } else {
        req.session.views = 1
        res.end(' New session is started')
    }
})

// The server object listens on port 3000.
app.listen(3000, function () {
    console.log("Express Started on Port 3000");
});