Val Town Has a Free API — Run TypeScript Functions in the Cloud Instantly

TL;DR

Val Town lets you write, run, and deploy TypeScript functions in the cloud with zero infrastructure. Create APIs, cron jobs, and email handlers — all from your browser. Free tier includes 100K function calls/month.

What Is Val Town?

Val Town is a social coding platform:

• Instant deployment — write a function, it's live immediately
• HTTP endpoints — each function gets a URL
• Cron jobs — schedule functions to run on intervals
• Email handlers — receive and process emails
• SQLite database — built-in persistence
• NPM packages — import any npm package
• Free tier — 100K requests/month

Quick Start

Go to val.town and create a new val:

// HTTP endpoint — instantly gets a URL
export default async function(req: Request): Promise<Response> {
  const url = new URL(req.url);
  const name = url.searchParams.get("name") || "World";

  return Response.json({
    message: `Hello, ${name}!`,
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
  });
}
// Live at: https://username-funcname.web.val.run

Cron Jobs

// Runs every hour — check website status
export default async function() {
  const sites = [
    "https://example.com",
    "https://myapp.com",
    "https://api.myservice.com/health",
  ];

  for (const site of sites) {
    const start = Date.now();
    try {
      const res = await fetch(site);
      const latency = Date.now() - start;

      if (!res.ok) {
        await sendAlert(`${site} returned ${res.status} (${latency}ms)`);
      }
    } catch (err) {
      await sendAlert(`${site} is DOWN: ${err.message}`);
    }
  }
}

Built-in SQLite

import { sqlite } from "https://esm.town/v/std/sqlite";

// Create table
await sqlite.execute(`
  CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS pageviews (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
    path TEXT NOT NULL,
    user_agent TEXT,
    created_at DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
  )
`);

export default async function(req: Request): Promise<Response> {
  const url = new URL(req.url);

  // Track pageview
  await sqlite.execute({
    sql: "INSERT INTO pageviews (path, user_agent) VALUES (?, ?)",
    args: [url.pathname, req.headers.get("user-agent")],
  });

  // Get stats
  const stats = await sqlite.execute(
    "SELECT path, COUNT(*) as views FROM pageviews GROUP BY path ORDER BY views DESC LIMIT 10"
  );

  return Response.json(stats.rows);
}

Email Handler

// Receive emails at [e-mail]
export default async function(email: {
  from: string;
  to: string[];
  subject: string;
  text: string;
}) {
  // Process incoming email
  console.log(`Email from ${email.from}: ${email.subject}`);

  // Store in SQLite
  await sqlite.execute({
    sql: "INSERT INTO emails (sender, subject, body) VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
    args: [email.from, email.subject, email.text],
  });

  // Auto-reply
  await email.reply("Thanks! I got your message.");
}

Use NPM Packages

import Anthropic from "npm:@anthropic-ai/sdk";

const client = new Anthropic({ apiKey: Deno.env.get("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY") });

export default async function(req: Request): Promise<Response> {
  const { prompt } = await req.json();

  const message = await client.messages.create({
    model: "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens: 1024,
    messages: [{ role: "user", content: prompt }],
  });

  return Response.json({ response: message.content[0].text });
}

Val Town vs Alternatives

Feature	Val Town	Cloudflare Workers	AWS Lambda	Vercel Functions
Free tier	100K calls	100K calls	1M calls	100K calls
Deploy time	Instant	~30s	~60s	~30s
Browser IDE	Yes	Yes (Wrangler)	No	No
Built-in DB	SQLite	D1	DynamoDB ($)	Vercel KV ($)
Cron jobs	Yes	Yes	EventBridge	Yes
Email handler	Yes	Email Workers	SES	No
Social/sharing	Yes	No	No	No

Resources

• Val Town Documentation
• Val Town Examples
• API Reference

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