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Text Generation Quickstart

This quickstart walks you through making your first text generation request with AI Gateway.

AI Assistance

Set up AI Gateway for text generation. First, make sure the Vercel CLI is installed (`npm i -g vercel`). If I'm using Claude Code or Cursor, install the Vercel Plugin (`npx plugins add vercel/vercel-plugin`). For other agents, install Vercel Skills (`npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills`). Then: 1. Initialize a Node.js project and install the `ai` package, dotenv, @types/node, tsx, and typescript. 2. Save my AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY in .env.local. 3. Create an index.ts that uses the AI SDK streamText function with the model 'openai/gpt-5.5' to stream a response and log token usage. 4. Run it with tsx to verify it works.

  1. Set up your project

    Create a new directory and initialize a Node.js project:

    Terminal
    mkdir ai-text-demo
cd ai-text-demo
pnpm init

  2. Install dependencies

    Install the AI SDK and development dependencies:

    Terminal
    npm install ai dotenv @types/node tsx typescript
    Terminal
    yarn add ai dotenv @types/node tsx typescript
    Terminal
    pnpm add ai dotenv @types/node tsx typescript
    Terminal
    bun add ai dotenv @types/node tsx typescript

  3. Set up your API key

    Go to the AI Gateway API Keys page in your Vercel dashboard and click Create key to generate a new 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.

  4. Create and run your script

    Create an index.ts file:

    index.ts
    import { streamText } from 'ai';
import 'dotenv/config';
 
async function main() {
  const result = streamText({
    model: 'openai/gpt-5.5',
    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);

    Run your script:

    Terminal
    pnpm tsx index.ts

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

  5. Next steps

Compatible APIs

OpenAI Chat Completions API

Use any OpenAI SDK or HTTP client with AI Gateway:

index.ts
import OpenAI from 'openai';
import 'dotenv/config';
 
const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY,
  baseURL: 'https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1',
});
 
async function main() {
  const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
    messages: [
      {
        role: 'user',
        content: 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
      },
    ],
  });
 
  console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);
}
 
main().catch(console.error);
main.py
import os
from openai import OpenAI
from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
load_dotenv()
 
client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.getenv('AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY'),
    base_url='https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1',
)
 
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model='anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
    messages=[
        {
            'role': 'user',
            'content': 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
        },
    ],
)
 
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Learn more in the OpenAI Chat Completions API docs.

Anthropic Messages API

Use any Anthropic SDK or HTTP client with AI Gateway:

index.ts
import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';
import 'dotenv/config';
 
const client = new Anthropic({
  apiKey: process.env.AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY,
  baseURL: 'https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh',
});
 
async function main() {
  const message = await client.messages.create({
    model: 'anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
    max_tokens: 1024,
    messages: [
      {
        role: 'user',
        content: 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
      },
    ],
  });
 
  console.log(message.content[0].text);
}
 
main().catch(console.error);
main.py
import os
import anthropic
from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
load_dotenv()
 
client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    api_key=os.getenv('AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY'),
    base_url='https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh',
)
 
message = client.messages.create(
    model='anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[
        {
            'role': 'user',
            'content': 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
        },
    ],
)
 
print(message.content[0].text)

Learn more in the Anthropic Messages API docs.

OpenResponses API

Use the OpenResponses API, an open standard for AI model interactions:

index.ts
import 'dotenv/config';
 
async function main() {
  const response = await fetch('https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1/responses', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY}`,
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      model: 'anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
      input: [
        {
          type: 'message',
          role: 'user',
          content: 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
        },
      ],
    }),
  });
 
  const result = await response.json();
  console.log(result.output[0].content[0].text);
}
 
main().catch(console.error);
main.py
import os
import requests
from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
load_dotenv()
 
response = requests.post(
    'https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1/responses',
    headers={
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.getenv("AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY")}',
    },
    json={
        'model': 'anthropic/claude-opus-4.8',
        'input': [
            {
                'type': 'message',
                'role': 'user',
                'content': 'Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions.',
            },
        ],
    },
)
 
result = response.json()
print(result['output'][0]['content'][0]['text'])
Terminal
curl -X POST "https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1/responses" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-opus-4.8",
    "input": [
      {
        "type": "message",
        "role": "user",
        "content": "Invent a new holiday and describe its traditions."
      }
    ]
  }'

Learn more in the OpenResponses API docs.

Last updated June 29, 2026
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