Gleam is a statically-typed language,[9] which is different from the most popular languages that run on Erlang’s virtual machine BEAM, Erlang and Elixir. Gleam has its own type-safe implementation of OTP, Erlang's actor framework.[10] Packages are provided using the Hex package manager, and an index for finding packages written for Gleam is available.[11]
History
Gleam was originally created in 2016 by Louis Pilfold for a conference talk. It was later redesigned and adapted into what it is today.[6]
The first numbered version of Gleam was released on April 15, 2019.[12] Compiling to JavaScript was introduced with version v0.16.[13]
In 2023 the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation funded the creation of a course for learning Gleam on the learning platform Exercism.[14]
In April 2025, Thoughtworks added Gleam to its Technology Radar in the Assess ring (languages & frameworks worth exploring). [16]
Adoption
Gleam has seen some adoption in recent years.[17] According to a blog post, the language creators have placed strong emphasis on developer experience (DX), which has contributed to its appeal.[18][bettersourceneeded]
Although it compiles to run on the BEAM virtual machine, most new Gleam users do not have a background in Erlang nor Elixir, two older BEAM languages.[19] In 2025, Louis Pilfold reported on results from the 2024 developer survey, which received 841 responses.[19] Pilfold concluded that Gleam developers "overwhelmingly come from other ecosystems other than Erlang and Elixir".[19]
The core team also reported on Gleam's efforts to expand the BEAM ecosystem in a keynote talk at Code BEAM Europe 2024.[20]
Developers have cited Gleam’s simplicity, static typing, and user-friendly tooling as reasons for adoption.[21] The developer behind Nestful described their motivations for rewriting the project in Gleam as driven by its clarity and ease of use.[22] There is a community-maintained list of companies using Gleam in production.[23]
In 2025, Gleam appeared for the first time in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, where it was the 2nd "most admired" language, with 70% of users currently using the language wanting to continue working with it.[17] 1.1% of developer respondents reported doing "extensive development work" in the language over the past year.[17]
pubfnfactorial(x:Int)->Int{// The public function calls the private tail recursive functionfactorial_loop(x,1)}fnfactorial_loop(x:Int,accumulator:Int)->Int{casex{1->accumulator// The last thing this function does is call itself_->factorial_loop(x-1,accumulator*x)}}
Implementation
Gleam's toolchain is implemented in the Rust programming language.[26] The toolchain is a single native binary executable which contains the compiler, build tool, package manager, source code formatter, and language server.[citation needed] A WebAssembly binary containing the Gleam compiler is also available, enabling Gleam code to be compiled within a web browser.[27] This is used in Gleam's interactive language tour[28] and online playground.[29]
