Vercel AI SDK vs TanStack AI (2026): Best AI SDK for Developers

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)#

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)#

'use client';
import { useChat } from '@ai-sdk/react';

export default function Chat() {
  const { messages, sendMessage, status } = useChat({
    api: '/api/chat',
  });

  return (
    <>
      {messages.map(m => (
        <p key={m.id}>{m.content}</p>
      ))}
      <button onClick={() => sendMessage({ text: 'Hello' })}>
        Send
      </button>
    </>
  );
}

TanStack AI Example#

Server#

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)#

import { useChat, fetchServerSentEvents } from '@tanstack/ai-react';

export function Chat() {
  const { messages, sendMessage, isLoading } = useChat({
    connection: fetchServerSentEvents('/api/chat'),
  });

  return (
    <>
      {messages.map(m => (
        <p key={m.id}>{m.content}</p>
      ))}
      <button disabled={isLoading} onClick={() => sendMessage('Hello')}>
        Send
      </button>
    </>
  );
}

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 to add AI Assistant to your NextJS or Tanstack site in minutes.