Getting Started

This quickstart will walk you through making an AI model request with Vercel's AI Gateway. While this guide uses the AI SDK, you can also integrate with the OpenAI SDK or other community frameworks.

1. Set up your application

   Start by creating a new directory using the mkdir command. Change into your new directory and then run the pnpm init command, which will create a package.json.

   terminal

   mkdir demo
   cd demo
   pnpm init

2. Install dependencies

   Install the AI SDK package, ai, along with other necessary dependencies.

   pnpmyarnnpmbun

   pnpm i ai dotenv @types/node tsx typescript

   dotenv is used to access environment variables (your AI Gateway API key) within your application. The tsx package is a TypeScript runner that allows you to run your TypeScript code. The typescript package is the TypeScript compiler. The @types/node package is the TypeScript definitions for the Node.js API.

3. Set up your API key

   To create an API key, go to the AI Gateway tab of the dashboard:

   1. Select API keys on the left side bar
   2. Then select Create key and proceed with Create key from the dialog

   Once you have the API key, create a .env.local file and save your API key:

   .env.local

   AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY=your_ai_gateway_api_key

   Instead of using an API key, you can use OIDC tokens to authenticate your requests.

   The AI Gateway provider will default to using the AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY environment variable.

4. Create and run your script

   Create an index.ts file in the root of your project and add the following code:

   index.ts

   import { streamText } from 'ai';
   import 'dotenv/config';
    
   async function main() {
     const result = streamText({
       model: 'openai/gpt-5',
       prompt: 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
     });
    
     for await (const textPart of result.textStream) {
       process.stdout.write(textPart);
     }
    
     console.log();
     console.log('Token usage:', await result.usage);
     console.log('Finish reason:', await result.finishReason);
   }
    
   main().catch(console.error);

   Now, run your script:

   terminal

   pnpm tsx index.ts

   You should see the AI model's response to your prompt.

5. Next steps

   Continue with the AI SDK documentation to learn advanced configuration, set up provider routing and fallbacks, and explore more integration examples.

The AI Gateway provides OpenAI-compatible API endpoints that allow you to use existing OpenAI client libraries and tools with the AI Gateway.

The OpenAI-compatible API includes:

• Model Management: List and retrieve the available models
• Chat Completions: Create chat completions that support streaming, images, and file attachments
• Tool Calls: Call functions with automatic or explicit tool selection
• Existing Tool Integration: Use your existing OpenAI client libraries and tools without needing modifications

Learn more about using the OpenAI SDK with the AI Gateway in the OpenAI-Compatible API page.

The AI Gateway is designed to work with any framework that supports the OpenAI API or AI SDK 5.

Read more about using the AI Gateway with other community frameworks in the AI Gateway with community frameworks section.