As AI becomes integral to modern apps, developers are looking for the **best AI SDK for developers** to build AI features quickly and reliably. Two prominent toolkits have emerged in this space: **Vercel’s AI SDK** (from the creators of Next.js) and the new **TanStack AI** (from the team behind TanStack Query/Table). This article is a **technical comparison** designed to help developers decide which SDK to use. We’ll cover architecture, developer experience, flexibility, performance, ecosystem, and show **side-by-side code examples** for building an AI-powered chat UI. *** ## Overview of Vercel AI SDK Vercel’s AI SDK is an **open-source TypeScript toolkit** for building AI-powered applications and chat interfaces. Built by the team behind Next.js, it focuses on **speed, ergonomics, and production readiness**. ### Key Features * **Unified API across AI providers**\ Works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google, Hugging Face, Amazon Bedrock, and more. Switching providers often requires changing a single line of code. * **High-level AI primitives**\ Generate text, structured JSON, images, and tool/function calls using simple APIs like `generateText` or `generateObject`. * **First-class streaming support**\ Built-in streaming from server to client for real-time UI updates. * **Framework-agnostic with UI hooks**\ Works with React, Next.js, SvelteKit, Nuxt, Node.js, etc. Comes with ready-made hooks like `useChat`. * **Agent + tool support**\ Supports multi-step AI agents with function calling and streamed tool results. * **Production-ready and mature**\ Actively maintained, widely adopted, and well-documented with official templates. ### Typical Use Cases * AI chatbots * AI-powered dashboards * Content generation tools * MVPs and production apps where **speed matters most** *** ## Overview of TanStack AI TanStack AI is a **new open-source AI SDK (currently alpha)** created by the TanStack team. It positions itself as a **vendor-neutral, type-safe alternative** to Vercel’s AI SDK. ### Key Features * **Provider-agnostic, no middleman**\ Direct calls to AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama). No proprietary gateway or hosted service. * **Extreme TypeScript type safety**\ End-to-end type inference for models, options, tool schemas, and responses. Many errors are caught at compile time. * **Isomorphic tools system**\ Define tools once with schemas (e.g. Zod) and execute them securely on the server with automatic tool-call loops. * **Framework-agnostic core**\ Works independently of React/Next.js. React bindings exist, but the core is portable. * **Open streaming protocol**\ Uses standard Server-Sent Events (SSE), with plans for multi-language server support (PHP, Python). * **Built-in devtools**\ Inspect token streams, tool calls, and agent behavior in real time. ### Typical Use Cases * Multi-provider AI architectures * Type-safe enterprise applications * Projects that want **zero vendor lock-in** * Advanced AI agents with custom tools *** ## Vercel AI SDK vs TanStack AI: Comparison ### Developer Experience **Vercel AI SDK** * Extremely fast onboarding * Batteries-included abstractions * Excellent docs and examples * Ideal for rapid prototyping **TanStack AI** * More architectural upfront thinking * Strong compile-time guarantees * Excellent DX for TypeScript-heavy teams * Slightly higher learning curve (alpha) **Winner:** * Speed & simplicity → **Vercel AI SDK** * Type safety & architecture → **TanStack AI** *** ### Flexibility & Vendor Lock-In **Vercel AI SDK** * Provider-agnostic, but encourages use of Vercel AI Gateway * Custom streaming protocol (MCP) * JS/TS-focused **TanStack AI** * Fully vendor-neutral * No gateways, no proprietary formats * Designed for multi-language backends **Winner:** **TanStack AI** *** ### Performance & Streaming Both SDKs: * Support token-level streaming * Have minimal overhead * Are dominated by model latency Key difference: * TanStack AI streams directly from providers * Vercel AI SDK may add an optional gateway hop **Winner:** Tie (slight edge to TanStack AI for transparency) *** ### Ecosystem & Community **Vercel AI SDK** * Large and growing user base * Strong Next.js and Vercel ecosystem * Proven in production **TanStack AI** * Smaller but passionate early community * Backed by a highly respected open-source team * Rapid iteration, but alpha-stage **Winner:** **Vercel AI SDK (for now)** *** ## Code Comparison: AI Chat UI ### Vercel AI SDK Example #### Server (Next.js API Route) ```ts import { streamText, convertToModelMessages } from 'ai'; export async function POST(req: Request) { const { messages } = await req.json(); const result = streamText({ model: 'openai/gpt-4', system: 'You are a helpful assistant.', messages: await convertToModelMessages(messages), }); return result.toUIMessageStreamResponse(); } ``` #### Client (React) ```tsx 'use client'; import { useChat } from '@ai-sdk/react'; export default function Chat() { const { messages, sendMessage, status } = useChat({ api: '/api/chat', }); return ( <> {messages.map(m => (

{m.content}

))} ); } ``` *** ### TanStack AI Example #### Server ```ts import { chat, toStreamResponse } from '@tanstack/ai'; import { openai } from '@tanstack/ai-openai'; export async function POST(req: Request) { const { messages } = await req.json(); const stream = chat({ adapter: openai(), model: 'gpt-4', messages, }); return toStreamResponse(stream); } ``` #### Client (React) ```tsx import { useChat, fetchServerSentEvents } from '@tanstack/ai-react'; export function Chat() { const { messages, sendMessage, isLoading } = useChat({ connection: fetchServerSentEvents('/api/chat'), }); return ( <> {messages.map(m => (

{m.content}

))} ); } ``` *** ## Final Recommendation Choose **Vercel AI SDK** if you: * Want the fastest path to production * Are building with Next.js or deploying on Vercel * Prefer batteries-included abstractions Choose **TanStack AI** if you: * Want maximum type safety * Need multi-provider or vendor-neutral AI * Care about long-term architectural control ### TL;DR * **Rapid prototyping & DX → Vercel AI SDK** * **Long-term control & type safety → TanStack AI** Both SDKs represent the state of the art for **AI SDKs in 2026**, and competition between them is making the ecosystem better for everyone.

*** 👉 Check out our [AI Chat plugin](https://www.better-stack.ai/docs/plugins/ai-chat) to add AI Assistant to your NextJS or Tanstack site in minutes.

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