# Beam 1.0 vs Vercel AI Gateway

> Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) to Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on schema & documentation. Both do llm inference.

- Beam 1.0: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #786 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/reflection-beam.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json
- Vercel AI Gateway: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #302 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-ai-gateway.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-ai-gateway.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Beam 1.0 (D)

Good for: An OpenAI-compatible endpoint for a large open-weight coding and agent model, for builders who want the same model hosted or self-hosted under Apache-2.0.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 74

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Vercel AI Gateway loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The API is a public beta with no SLA, and per-organisation rate limits and the daily allocation are not published as numbers

### Vercel AI Gateway (B)

Good for: Teams that want one key, one bill, budgets and failover in front of many model providers, especially on Vercel with OIDC.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 74 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 67
- Security & auth, 79 against 46
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: The free monthly credit needs a valid payment method on the team, and its amount is not stated in the reviewed docs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Beam 1.0 | Vercel AI Gateway | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 74 | Vercel AI Gateway +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 74 | Beam 1.0 +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 83 | Vercel AI Gateway +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 79 | Vercel AI Gateway +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 20 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 79 | Vercel AI Gateway +29 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 70 | Vercel AI Gateway +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **53.4 · D** | **66.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Beam 1.0 | Vercel AI Gateway |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model router |
| Vendor | Reflection | Vercel Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1` | `https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Weights under Apache-2.0. The hosted Reflection API is a closed service under Reflection AI, Inc.'s commercial terms of service | Proprietary service under Vercel's Terms of Service and AI Product Terms, with Token Pass terms on its docs page. Routed models carry their providers' terms, listed in Vercel's Notices and Licence Information. The `@ai-sdk/gateway` provider is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 29.6M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Beam 1.0.** The Reflection API is OpenAI-compatible, with an OpenAPI document, strict structured outputs and tool calls, and error codes that say when to retry, and the weights are Apache-2.0. It is a free public beta with unpublished daily limits and no per-token price, reasoning can't be turned off, and three API incidents were posted between 14 and 16 October 2026.

**Vercel AI Gateway.** Token prices pass through with no markup, prompts are not stored by the gateway, and budgets, provider failover and per-request logs are built in. The free monthly credit needs a card on file, rate limits are not published as numbers, no SLA covers the API, and the contractual promise not to train on content applies to Enterprise subscriptions only.

## Before you call either

### Beam 1.0

1. Send `reasoning_effort` `low` or `medium` for short tasks. The default is `max`, and `none` or `minimal` return `400 unsupported_value`
2. Return every assistant message with its `reasoning_content` unchanged. If a turn comes back without it, start a new conversation, since later requests fail with `missing_required_parameter`
3. Don't rely on `stop` or `seed`. Both are accepted and ignored, so truncate output in your own code
4. Honour `x-should-retry: false` on a 429. It means a daily limit is spent and `Retry-After` counts to 00:00 UTC
5. Set `max_completion_tokens` yourself on long prompts. The default budget isn't reduced to fit the prompt and includes reasoning tokens

### Vercel AI Gateway

1. Read `GET https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1/models` without a key to pick a model ID and check its price, context, ZDR and no-training flags before calling
2. Set `zeroDataRetention` or `disallowPromptTraining` to true in `providerOptions.gateway` on sensitive requests. Default routing ignores provider retention and training policies
3. Treat a 429 as retryable and honour `retry-after` when present. A 402 with `quota_for_entity_exceeded` is a spent budget, so do not retry it
4. On a Token Pass key, a 403 with `no_providers_available` means spent credit or a model outside the pass. Retry with a standard AI Gateway key, which bills credits
5. Set `inferenceRegion` when data residency matters. The default `global` may run inference outside the user's jurisdiction

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Beam 1.0 or Vercel AI Gateway?

Vercel AI Gateway scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Beam 1.0 leads on schema & documentation.

### Do Beam 1.0 and Vercel AI Gateway need an API key?

Beam 1.0 needs an API key. Vercel AI Gateway takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Beam 1.0 and Vercel AI Gateway without installing anything?

Yes. Beam 1.0 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1 and Vercel AI Gateway at https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "reflection-beam", "b": "vercel-ai-gateway"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare reflection-beam vercel-ai-gateway`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-ai-gateway.json

## Other comparisons with Beam 1.0 or Vercel AI Gateway

- [Claude API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Claude API vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Antseed vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-reflection-beam.md)
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