Vercel AI SDK
The Vercel AI SDK, also called AI SDK, is a free open source TypeScript library for building AI-powered applications and agents. It is made by Vercel and the Next.js team and gives one API for text generation, structured output, tool calling and chat interfaces across providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The documentation site lists version 7 as the latest major version.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- Pricing
- Open sourceFree plan: The library is free and open source. You pay the model providers you call.
- Open source
- YesApache-2.0
A good fit for
- TypeScript teams that want to switch between model providers without rewriting code
- Chat and streaming interfaces in Next.js, React, Svelte or Vue apps
- Applications that need typed, schema-checked model output
- Agents with a modest number of tools that run inside an existing web app
Not a good fit for
- Python projects: the SDK is TypeScript only
- Long-running, durable agent workflows with state saved between steps: it does not include a hosted workflow engine
- Teams that want a visual editor or a managed observability product from the same vendor
Vercel AI SDK pricing
The AI SDK is free and open source with no paid tier. Costs come from the model providers you use and from wherever you host your app.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| AI SDK | $0 | The full open source library. |
Prices in USD, checked on 6 October 2026. Current prices on ai-sdk.dev.
Main features
- Unified provider API
- One interface for models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other providers.
- Text generation
- Generate and stream text responses from a model.
- Structured output
- Generate typed objects that match a schema, with Zod integration.
- Tool calling and agents
- Give models tools and run them in a loop with the ToolLoopAgent class.
- UI hooks
- Framework-agnostic hooks for chat and generative interfaces in React, Svelte and Vue.
- Framework support
- Works with Next.js and other frameworks, and with the Node.js runtime.
About Vercel AI SDK
The AI SDK is a TypeScript toolkit. Its core package, ai, wraps many model providers behind one interface, so code written for one provider can switch to another by changing the model.
It covers text generation, structured data generation with schemas such as Zod, and agents that call tools in a loop. A separate UI layer provides framework-agnostic hooks for chatbots and generative interfaces.
The project is maintained by Vercel and the Next.js team in the vercel/ai repository. It does not need Vercel hosting.
- Made by
- Vercel
- Launched
- 2023
- Based in
- San Francisco, California
- Free plan
- The library is free and open source. You pay the model providers you call.
- Available on
- TypeScript, Node.js, Next.js, React, Svelte, Vue
Vercel AI SDK alternatives
Getting started
Install the core package.
npm install aiFollow the quickstart for your framework in the documentation.
Questions about Vercel AI SDK
Is the Vercel AI SDK free?
Yes. It is a free open source library. You pay only the model providers you call and your own hosting.
Do I need to host on Vercel to use the AI SDK?
No. It is a TypeScript library that runs in Node.js and works with several frameworks, so it does not require Vercel hosting.
What language does the AI SDK use?
TypeScript. It is installed from npm as the ai package.
Which model providers does it support?
The documentation names OpenAI, Anthropic and Google among others, all behind one API.
Vercel AI SDK vs LangGraph: which should I use?
The AI SDK is a TypeScript toolkit for provider access, streaming and chat UIs. LangGraph is a Python and JavaScript framework for stateful, long-running agent graphs.
Sources and links
Work on Vercel AI SDK? Claim this listing. Something wrong or out of date? Suggest a correction. Stats come from the public GitHub and npm APIs and update every day.