Next.js: Powering AI Innovation – 12 Open-Source AI Starters to Kickstart Your Next AI Project
Next.js: The Backbone of AI Projects (and Why It’s a Smart Choice) - 12 Open-source Next.js AI Starter for your Next Project
So, You Wanna Build AI APp with Next.js? Here are the Next AI Starters for Next.js
Next.js has become a household name for web developers, but its significance goes beyond that. It’s not just another React framework—it’s the React framework. Designed to make developers' lives easier, Next.js simplifies building server-side applications while offering exceptional performance, scalability, and developer experience.
But what really sets it apart is its appeal for AI projects, where data pipelines, real-time updates, and seamless integrations are non-negotiable. Pair that with its starter templates and the backing of Vercel’s AI tools, and you have a recipe for success.
Next.js Starter Templates: Lazy or Genius?
If you’ve ever found yourself stuck creating a web app from scratch, the Next.js starter templates will feel like a blessing. They give you a head start, offering pre-configured setups for routing, file structure, and even some basic UI.
For AI developers, these templates are more than just time-savers. They provide a solid foundation where you can integrate APIs, machine learning models, or data visualizations without fiddling with configurations.
Templates like create-next-app are perfect for quickly spinning up a project, letting you focus on the real work—your AI.
But here’s the twist: not using these templates could mean shooting yourself in the foot. Why reinvent the wheel when Next.js already offers it for free?
Next.js and AI: A Love Story in the Making
AI projects are demanding. They need fast, real-time data processing, reliable APIs, and a UI that doesn’t feel like it belongs in the 2000s. Next.js excels here:
- Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Perfect for applications needing real-time updates, like dashboards or AI-powered analytics.
- API Routes: Host your machine learning endpoints directly within your Next.js app—no need for a separate backend.
- Flexibility: Whether integrating OpenAI’s GPT, TensorFlow.js, or custom AI models, Next.js handles it all without breaking a sweat.
Vercel AI: Making Life Easier (Again)
Vercel, the company behind Next.js, has gone above and beyond to support AI developers. Their Vercel AI SDK lets you integrate GPT models and other AI APIs with minimal effort. Deployment? A breeze.
Their edge infrastructure ensures your AI app is fast, secure, and always ready to scale.
Let’s be honest: if you’re deploying an AI project and you’re not using Vercel, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Is Next.js Really Worth It for AI?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: absolutely yes.
Next.js isn’t just good for AI projects—it’s perfect for them. Its ecosystem, starter templates, and Vercel AI integrations make it almost criminal not to use it.
If you value performance, scalability, and developer productivity, there’s no debate here.
Open-source Template and Starters to Build AI projects with AI
1- LangChain + Next.js Starter Template
The LangChain + Next.js Starter Template offers a robust foundation for building AI-powered web apps. It combines LangChain.js modules with Next.js to support chatbots, structured outputs, multi-step agents, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with vector stores. Featuring Vercel AI SDK for token streaming, it simplifies creating serverless, free-tier-friendly solutions.
The template supports customizable workflows via LangGraph.js, with backend logic, schema validation, and Supabase vector store integration.
The template is a good choice for AI enthusiasts, it enables seamless deployment and real-time interaction with minimal boilerplate. Hosted demo available here.
2- Vercel AI SDK, Next.js, and OpenAI Chat Example
The Next AI App Starter by Glavin001 is a starter template for creating AI-powered web applications with Next.js.
It provides pre-built configurations and examples to integrate AI functionalities, making it easy to get started with AI-driven projects.
3- OpenAI Next.js SaaS Starter Kit and Boilerplate
The OpenAI Next.js SaaS Starter Kit is a comprehensive template for building AI-driven SaaS applications. Built with Next.js 13, React 18, and TypeScript, it simplifies launching AI startups with pre-configured OpenAI examples, integrations, business functionalities, and a high-quality design.
The kit includes support for PostgreSQL, Stripe payments, NextAuth authentication, and Sanity CMS.
Features
- Latest Tech Stack: Built with Next.js 13, React 18, and TypeScript for fast, dynamic, and modern applications.
- Pre-Built OpenAI Examples: Includes six ready-to-use OpenAI examples for quick integration and production use.
- Easy OpenAI Integration: Simply add your API key to enable AI functionalities.
- Sanity Blog Integration: Manage and create blog content easily with Sanity CMS.
- PostgreSQL Database: Integrated with Vercel’s PostgreSQL for high performance and scalability.
- Stripe Subscription Payments: Monetize your platform with secure subscription-based payments.
- NextAuth Authentication: Provides seamless and secure user authentication.
- MDX Docs Support: Includes a system for creating a documentation portal for end users.
- SEO Optimization: Adheres to SEO best practices for improved visibility and performance.
- Responsive Design: Modern, mobile-friendly design trends for an exceptional user experience.
- Effortless Deployment: Supports deployment on Vercel, Netlify, and AWS with ease.
- Rich Documentation: Comprehensive documentation for every feature and configuration step.
- Customizable: Flexible design and integrations allow tailoring to specific business needs.
4- Next.js OpenAI Starter App
This is a starter kit for integrating OpenAI's API into a Next.js application. It is crafted with minimal styling and basic API integration so you can strip it and bring your own libraries to make it your own. Feel free to fork and create something amazing!
5- EVI Next.js App Router Example
This project features a sample implementation of Hume's Empathic Voice Interface using Hume's React SDK. Here, we have a simple EVI that uses the Next.js App Router.
6- Next.js AI Chatbot
An Open-Source AI Chatbot Template Built With Next.js and the AI SDK by Vercel. This template ships with OpenAI gpt-4o as the default. However, with the AI SDK, you can switch LLM providers to OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, and many more with just a few lines of code.
Features
- Advanced Routing: Seamless navigation and performance with Next.js App Router.
- React Server Components (RSCs): Server-side rendering for improved performance.
- AI SDK: Unified API for text generation, structured objects, and LLM tool calls; supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, etc.
- Dynamic UI Hooks: Build chat and generative user interfaces effortlessly.
- Styling with Tailwind CSS: Enhanced by Radix UI primitives for accessibility and flexibility.
- Data Persistence:
- Vercel Postgres (powered by Neon) for saving chat history and user data.
- Vercel Blob for efficient file storage.
- Authentication: Secure and simple user authentication with NextAuth.js.
Hazem Abbas
7- Next.js, Vercel AI SDK, Ollama & ModelFusion starter
This starter example shows how to use Next.js, the Vercel AI SDK, Ollama and ModelFusion to create a ChatGPT-like AI-powered streaming chat bot.
8- Next Starter Template
The Next Starter Template is a versatile Next.js-based framework designed for fast, efficient web application development.
It features TypeScript for robust coding, Tailwind CSS for streamlined styling, tRPC for type-safe APIs, React Query for state management, NextAuth.js for secure authentication, and Prisma for PostgreSQL database management.
This setup emphasizes excellent developer experience, minimal client-side load, and rapid iteration, making it ideal for building modern, full-stack applications with ease.
9- OpenAI Starter
This open-source Next.js Starter Kit is your go-to resource for exploring the latest features from OpenAI. Whether you're a developer, researcher, or AI enthusiast, it’s designed to help you dive into OpenAI's cutting-edge advancements with ease.
10- Next.js Lepton AI Starter
This is a Next.js project using the Lepton AI. It is a starter template to help you get started with building applications that use the Lepton API.
Hazem Abbas
11- Vercel AI SDK RAG Guide Starter Project
The Vercel AI SDK RAG Guide Starter Project is a hands-on template for building a chatbot that responds only with information from its knowledge base. Perfect for use cases like customer support or creating a "second brain," this project lets you store and retrieve information seamlessly.
12- NextJS OpenAI Whisper Starter
A Next.js starter project integrating OpenAI's Whisper API for speech-to-text functionality. You can easily deploy it to Vercel, with one command.
Hazem Abbas
Closing Thoughts
Next.js isn’t just another shiny framework. It’s the backbone of modern AI-driven web applications. By combining robust features, starter templates, and seamless Vercel integrations, it proves why it’s trusted by some of the biggest names in AI development.
If you’re serious about your AI project, Next.js isn’t just an option—it’s the option. Why settle for less when the best is right here?
