Provider Timeouts

You can set per-provider timeouts to trigger fast failover when a provider is slow to respond. If a provider doesn't start responding within the configured timeout, AI Gateway aborts the request and falls back to the next available provider.

Use this for latency-sensitive applications where fast failover beats waiting for a slow provider.

Use the providerTimeouts option in providerOptions.gateway to configure timeouts per provider. Values are in milliseconds.

import { streamText } from 'ai';
 
export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const { prompt } = await request.json();
 
  const result = streamText({
    model: 'openai/gpt-5.1',
    prompt,
    providerOptions: {
      gateway: {
        providerTimeouts: {
          byok: { openai: 15000 }, // 15 seconds
        },
      },
    },
  });
 
  return result.toUIMessageStreamResponse();
}

In this example, if OpenAI doesn't start responding within 15 seconds using your own API key, AI Gateway aborts the request and tries the next available provider.

Provider timeouts work with all other provider options. Combine them with order to control both the provider sequence and failover speed:

import { streamText } from 'ai';
 
export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const { prompt } = await request.json();
 
  const result = streamText({
    model: 'anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6',
    prompt,
    providerOptions: {
      gateway: {
        order: ['anthropic', 'bedrock', 'vertex'],
        providerTimeouts: {
          byok: {
            anthropic: 10000,
            bedrock: 15000,
            // no timeout for vertex — uses the default gateway timeout
          },
        },
      },
    },
  });
 
  return result.toUIMessageStreamResponse();
}

This configuration:

1. Tries Anthropic first with a 10-second timeout
2. If Anthropic is slow, falls back to Bedrock with a 15-second timeout
3. If Bedrock is slow, falls back to Vertex with the default gateway timeout

When a provider times out, the attempt metadata includes providerTimeout and configuredTimeoutMs fields so you can see exactly what happened:

"attempts": [
  {
    "provider": "anthropic",
    "credentialType": "byok",
    "success": false,
    "error": "PROVIDER_TIMEOUT",
    "providerTimeout": true,
    "configuredTimeoutMs": 10000
  },
  {
    "provider": "bedrock",
    "credentialType": "byok",
    "success": true,
    "statusCode": 200
  }
]

For more details on reading provider metadata, see Provider Options.