Vercel AI Gateway

Vercel AI Gateway gives you a single API to access models from many providers. You switch by model id without swapping SDKs or juggling multiple keys. Cline integrates directly so you can pick a Gateway model in the dropdown, use it like any other provider, and see token and cache usage in the stream.

Useful links:

• Team dashboard: https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai
• Models catalog: https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/models
• Docs: https://vercel.com/docs/ai-gateway

What you get

• One endpoint for 100+ models with a single key
• Automatic retries and fallbacks that you configure on the dashboard
• Spend monitoring with requests by model, token counts, cache usage, latency percentiles, and cost
• OpenAI-compatible surface so existing clients work

Getting an API Key

1. Sign in at https://vercel.com
2. Dashboard → AI Gateway → API Keys → Create key
3. Copy the key

For more on authentication and OIDC options, see https://vercel.com/docs/ai-gateway/authentication

Configuration in Cline

1. Open Cline settings
2. Select Vercel AI Gateway as the API Provider
3. Paste your Gateway API Key
4. Pick a model from the list. Cline fetches the catalog automatically. You can also paste an exact id

Notes:

• Model ids often follow provider/model. Copy the exact id from the catalog
  Examples:
  • openai/gpt-5
  • anthropic/claude-sonnet-4
  • google/gemini-2.5-pro
  • groq/llama-3.1-70b
  • deepseek/deepseek-v3

Observability you can act on

<Frame> </Frame>

What to watch:

• Requests by model - confirm routing and adoption
• Tokens - input vs output, including reasoning if exposed
• Cache - cached input and cache creation tokens
• Latency - p75 duration and p75 time to first token
• Cost - per project and per model

Use it to:

• Compare output tokens per request before and after a model change
• Validate cache strategy by tracking cache reads and write creation
• Catch TTFT regressions during experiments
• Align budgets with real usage

Supported models

The gateway supports a large and changing set of models. Cline pulls the list from the Gateway API and caches it locally. For the current catalog, see https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/models

Tips

<Tip> Use separate gateway keys per environment (dev, staging, prod). It keeps dashboards clean and budgets isolated. </Tip> <Note> Pricing is pass-through at provider list price. Bring-your-own key has 0% markup. You still pay provider and processing fees. </Note> <Info> Vercel does not add rate limits. Upstream providers may. New accounts receive $5 credits every 30 days until the first payment. </Info>

Troubleshooting

• 401 - send the Gateway key to the Gateway endpoint, not an upstream URL
• 404 model - copy the exact id from the Vercel catalog
• Slow first token - check p75 TTFT in the dashboard and try a model optimized for streaming
• Cost spikes - break down by model in the dashboard and cap or route traffic

Inspiration

• Multi-model evals - swap only the model id in Cline and compare latency and output tokens
• Progressive rollout - route a small percent to a new model in the dashboard and ramp with metrics
• Budget enforcement - set per-project limits without code changes

Crosslinks

• OpenAI-Compatible setup: /provider-config/openai-compatible
• Model Selection Guide: /getting-started/model-selection-guide
• Understanding Context Management: /getting-started/understanding-context-management