Netlify AI Gateway

Call AI providers from Netlify server-side compute using each provider's official SDK with zero credential config — the gateway injects the API keys and base URLs the SDKs already read. Instantiate the client with no args (except OpenRouter, which needs an explicit base URL).

Never do these (they silently fail or cost money):

• Not browser-callable. The gateway lives in Functions/Edge Functions only. Never call it from client-side React/browser code.
• Runtime-only credentials. Never call the gateway from build scripts, prerender/SSG, or build plugins — those get no credentials and fail. Do AI work at request time; cache to Netlify Blobs if output must look precomputed.
• 60s sync timeout. A slow generation in a synchronous function is killed at 60s. Stream it (SDK streaming + ReadableStream), or use a background function that persists output for the client to fetch.
• Requires a production deploy. The gateway does not activate until the project has at least one production deploy — even in local dev.
• Don't hardcode model lists. Model availability changes; check the live providers endpoint rather than baking in IDs.

Function example

File: netlify/functions/joke.js (mkdir -p netlify/functions). Install: npm install openai.

import process from "process";
import OpenAI from "openai";

export default async () => {
  const client = new OpenAI(); // reads OPENAI_API_KEY + OPENAI_BASE_URL
  try {
    const res = await client.responses.create({
      model: "gpt-5-mini",
      input: [{ role: "user", content: "Give me a random short dad joke" }],
      reasoning: { effort: "minimal" },
    });
    return Response.json({
      joke: res.output_text?.trim() || "Out of jokes",
      model: res.model,
      tokens: { input: res.usage.input_tokens, output: res.usage.output_tokens },
    });
  } catch (e) {
    return Response.json({ error: `${e}` }, { status: 500 });
  }
};

export const config = { path: "/api/joke" }; // route, local + deployed

Client-side fetch just hits the route:

const res = await fetch("/api/joke");
const data = await res.json();

Provider SDKs (modern — instantiate with no args)

Each SDK auto-reads the injected env vars. OpenRouter is the exception: its base URL must be passed explicitly.

// Anthropic — npm i @anthropic-ai/sdk
import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';
const anthropic = new Anthropic(); // ANTHROPIC_API_KEY + ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL
await anthropic.messages.create({
  model: 'claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929',
  max_tokens: 1024,
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
});

// OpenAI — npm i openai
import OpenAI from 'openai';
const openai = new OpenAI(); // OPENAI_API_KEY + OPENAI_BASE_URL
await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'gpt-5',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
});

// Google Gemini — npm i @google/genai
import { GoogleGenAI } from '@google/genai';
const genAI = new GoogleGenAI({}); // GEMINI_API_KEY + GOOGLE_GEMINI_BASE_URL
await genAI.models.generateContent({
  model: 'gemini-2.5-pro',
  contents: 'Hello!',
});

// OpenRouter — npm i @openrouter/sdk — base URL REQUIRED
import { OpenRouter } from '@openrouter/sdk';
const openRouter = new OpenRouter({
  serverURL: process.env.OPENROUTER_BASE_URL, // API key auto-read from OPENROUTER_API_KEY
});
await openRouter.chat.send({
  chatRequest: {
    model: 'x-ai/grok-4.5',
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
  },
});

OpenRouter models via the OpenAI SDK: you can reach any OpenRouter-served model (xAI, DeepSeek, Meta, Mistral, Qwen) through the plain OpenAI SDK — just pass the model ID in OpenRouter notation, no extra config:

await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-0731',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
});

Injected environment variables

Set in all Netlify compute contexts at function init only if you have not already set them at project/team level (Netlify never overrides your keys):

Gemini special case: Netlify will not inject GEMINI_API_KEY / GOOGLE_GEMINI_BASE_URL if either GOOGLE_API_KEY or GOOGLE_VERTEX_BASE_URL is set (use those to point at Vertex or your own Google credentials).

Always injected, never collide with your provider vars:

• NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_KEY
• NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_BASE_URL

Use the SDK path with the per-provider injected vars above as your default. Reach for NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_KEY / NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_BASE_URL only when a third-party or unsupported library needs the credentials passed explicitly — that's the correct time to configure them by hand.

Local dev

Two supported paths — both still require an existing production deploy:

• Netlify CLI: netlify dev (full support). Needs npm install -g netlify-cli@latest and netlify login.
• Netlify Vite plugin: install @netlify/vite-plugin, add netlify() to vite.config.js plugins, run your normal npm run dev — gateway access without netlify dev.

// vite.config.js
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import netlify from "@netlify/vite-plugin";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), netlify()],
})

Enable & deploy

1. Be on a credit-based plan (Free, Personal, Pro; Enterprise via Account Manager). Legacy plans must switch to a current plan.
2. Link a project: netlify init.
3. Deploy to production at least once — required to activate: netlify deploy --prod --open.
4. Don't disable AI Features; don't set your own provider keys unless you intend to override.

Constraints & gotchas

• Plan gating: Credit-based plans only (Free/Personal/Pro; Enterprise via Account Manager).
• Context window: input capped at 200k tokens.
• Rate limits (per team, across all projects, per minute, in credits): Free 90 / Personal 450 / Pro 1,800 / Enterprise 9,000. Set up rate limiting rules on AI functions to prevent visitor abuse driving up cost.
• Credit cost: tokens → USD (provider published rates) → credits. $1 USD of usage = 180 credits. Enable auto recharge or buy credit packs to meet demand.
• No request headers passed through — you can't enable proprietary header-gated experimental features.
• Batch inference not supported.
• OpenAI priority processing not supported.
• Prompt caching: Anthropic — only the default 5-minute ephemeral cache; OpenAI — a per-account prompt_cache_key is set; Gemini — explicit context caching not supported.
• Zero Data Retention only: the gateway only routes to ZDR providers. A model listed in the OpenRouter directory is not served if no ZDR host offers it. Browse the ZDR-filtered catalog at https://openrouter.ai/models?zdr=true.
• Model list is dynamic — served-directly models (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini) are enumerated from a live endpoint; OpenRouter-served models (xAI, DeepSeek, Meta, Mistral, Qwen) use OpenRouter notation. Don't hardcode; check availability at runtime.
• Privacy: the gateway does not store prompts or outputs.

Reference

• Full docs, quickstart, and example projects (AI SEO Image Generator, form-submission summaries, TanStack Start chat app) at AI Gateway overview and quickstart.

Netlify house rules (ai-gateway)

These are org conventions, not docs facts — merged into the rendered skill by ctx-gen and never generated. Owned by the skills maintainer.

1. Use the provider SDK with the injected env credentials — don't hand-roll a raw fetch() against the gateway, even though raw REST is a supported surface. The body must not present raw REST or the NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_KEY / NETLIFY_AI_GATEWAY_BASE_URL pair as a recommended path — but it MUST still document the pair as facts: always injected, never collide with user-set provider vars, and the right choice when a third-party or unsupported library needs explicit configuration. Demote the recommendation; keep the knowledge.
2. The gateway is not browser-callable: calls belong in functions or edge functions, never client-side code.
3. Model availability changes: don't hardcode model lists; check the live providers endpoint.
4. Gateway credentials are runtime-only: never call the gateway from build scripts, prerender/SSG, or build plugins — those calls get no credentials and fail. Do AI work at request time and cache the result (e.g. to Netlify Blobs) if it must look precomputed.
5. Gateway calls in a synchronous function are bound by the 60-second timeout: stream long generations (SDK streaming + ReadableStream), or use a background function that persists output for the client to fetch — never leave a slow generation unstreamed and assume it finishes.