Add AI to your app without having to manage API keys 🔑
Netlify AI Gateway (my 1st public launch since I joined the Netlify team) is live on Product Hunt today
Hey friends 👋
Every developer or vibe coder building with AI hits the same wall: you’re in flow, iterating on something cool, and suddenly you need to add an AI-powered feature. Then the momentum stops.
Not because the idea is hard. Because the setup is.
You create provider accounts. Generate API keys. Configure billing. Set up environment variables. Test credentials. Deploy securely.
By the time you’re done, the creative spark that started it all has faded.
I’ve been watching the Netlify team work on AI Gateway, and I think they’ve figured out what that friction actually is.
The Hidden Cost of AI Integration Overhead
When AI capabilities require separate account management, context switching becomes expensive.
You’re building a feature that needs smart suggestions. You pause to create an OpenAI account. Then you realize you want to test Anthropic’s Claude too. Another account. More API keys. More billing setup.
You want to compare model performance? You’re now managing credentials for three providers, writing switching logic, and hoping you didn’t expose anything sensitive.
Each step seems necessary, but together they break the building experience. Teams spend more time managing infrastructure than iterating on the feature itself.
This is the real problem modern AI development needs to solve.
What AI Gateway Brings to the Table
AI Gateway is designed to remove this friction by handling credentials, routing, and billing automatically. It uses Netlify’s infrastructure to inject access to multiple AI providers directly into your functions.
Instead of context switching between provider dashboards, developers stay in their codebase where momentum is easier to maintain.
Why It Matters for Developers
Development speed is rarely blocked by a single technical challenge. It’s shaped by how easily developers can experiment, iterate, and ship without breaking flow.
AI Gateway aims to make these steps faster by removing the operational overhead between “I want to add AI” and “the feature works.” Less account juggling. More time spent actually building.
Try it Yourself
Today, I’m helping launch AI Gateway on Product Hunt as part of our Netlify team, and I’m genuinely excited to share this with the community.
Our CEO Matt Biilmann vibe coded a demo app to show how fast you can ship with this: https://gpt-image-of-the-day.netlify.app
Would love your feedback and support on the launch. Link here.
P.S. A lot of us from Netlify team are answering questions all day on Product Hunt. If you try it out, drop a comment about your experience. We also did a Community Drop livestream walking through it yesterday: (see below)
