Deploy an AI app with Railway
Railway is the sweet spot between Vercel's polish and Coolify's flexibility. You get hosted Postgres, Redis, and any Docker app from one dashboard.
Prerequisites
- +Railway account
- +Repo with a Dockerfile or Nixpacks-compatible build
- +API keys
Step-by-Step
- 1
Create a project
New Project > Deploy from GitHub. Pick the repo and Railway detects your stack.
- 2
Add a database
Inside the project, click + > Database > Postgres. Railway provisions it with a connection string injected as DATABASE_URL.
- 3
Set environment variables
Use Railway's Reference Variables to wire DATABASE_URL from the Postgres service into your app service.
DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}} OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-... - 4
Configure the build
If you have a Dockerfile, Railway uses it. Otherwise Nixpacks auto-detects. For Next.js, set the start command to next start -p $PORT.
- 5
Generate a public domain
Service Settings > Networking > Generate Domain. You get a railway.app URL immediately.
- 6
Watch metrics
The Observability tab shows CPU, memory, and request volume. Set usage caps to avoid surprise bills.
Common Pitfalls
- !Forgetting to listen on $PORT. Hardcoded ports cause boot failures.
- !Free tier ran out? Move to Hobby ($5/mo) before deploying anything serious.
- !No volume by default. Add one if you write to disk.
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What's Next
- ->Set up cron jobs via Railway's Schedule feature.
- ->Add a worker service for background jobs that share the same DB.
