rsnext/docs/basic-features/static-file-serving.md

Static File Serving

Next.js can serve static files, like images, under a folder called public in the root directory. Files inside public can then be referenced by your code starting from the base URL (/).

For example, if you add an image to public/my-image.png, the following code will access the image:

function MyImage() {
  return <img src="/my-image.png" alt="my image" />
}

export default MyImage

Don't name the public directory anything else. The name can't be changed and is the only directory that Next.js uses to serve static assets.

If you ever add a static asset that conflicts with the name of a page, the public file will be ignored in favor of the page.