Vercel for Next.js AI apps

When you graduate from Streamlit to a real frontend, Vercel is where Next.js apps go.

If Streamlit is a bicycle, Next.js + Vercel is a car. More setup, far more power, the bar for production work.

Vercel hosts Next.js apps as serverless functions + static assets, deploys on git push, manages secrets, and offers analytics.

For AI calls, you can use:

• Next.js Route Handlers / API routes for backend calls
• Vercel AI SDK for streaming chat UIs
• Edge runtime for low-latency streaming

A minimal Next.js chat endpoint:

// app/api/chat/route.ts
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { streamText } from "ai";

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();
  const result = streamText({ model: openai("gpt-4o-mini"), messages });
  return result.toDataStreamResponse();
}

Deploy with vercel deploy. Set OPENAI_API_KEY in the Vercel dashboard.