How does OpenAI Agents SDK compare with the alternatives?
Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK when the model can drive a loop with agents, handoffs, guardrails, and sessions, with tracing built in. Pick LangGraph when your code should control each step through an explicit graph with checkpoints and human interrupts across model vendors.
Pick OpenAI's Agents SDK for OpenAI-first agents with handoffs, guardrails, and tracing to OpenAI's dashboard. Pick the AI SDK to keep every model vendor on one TypeScript code path with UI hooks; the Agents SDK reaches other models through an AI SDK adapter.
No named team on record runs both. Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK for a small loop on OpenAI models whose traces feed your evals, as Harvey's do; pick CrewAI for role-based crews on any vendor's models with a managed platform, as PwC and Gelato describe.
The OpenAI Agents SDK is a light loop with handoffs, guardrails, sessions, and tracing, aimed at OpenAI models with adapters for others. The Claude Agent SDK ships Claude Code's file and shell tools, subagents, and permission rules, and starts a CLI process per session. Decide on the model you are committed to, and on whether the agent needs a shell.
