Why does an async function return a Promise if called without await?

An async function in JavaScript always returns a Promise, even if called without await, because the async function essentially wraps the return value in a Promise. This allows working with asynchronous code uniformly.

For example:

async function foo() {
  return 42;
}

const result = foo();
console.log(result); // Promise {<fulfilled>: 42}

Here, foo() returns a Promise that resolves to the value 42. If called with await, you can get the value directly:

async function bar() {
  const value = await foo();
  console.log(value); // 42
}
bar();

Thus, async functions simplify working with asynchronous code, guaranteeing that the result will always be a Promise.