# CrewAI vs Pydantic AI

> Pydantic AI has a score of 80 (A) against CrewAI's 67 (B). Both do agent frameworks. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 21 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

Pydantic AI has a score of 80 (A) against CrewAI's 67 (B). Both do agent frameworks. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 21 points.

- CrewAI: grade B, 67/100, rank #149 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crewai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crewai.json
- Pydantic AI: grade A, 80/100, rank #7 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pydantic-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pydantic-ai.json

## Which one, for what

Pick CrewAI for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Pydantic AI for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+21), agent ergonomics (+5), security & auth (+15), payments & pricing (+20), transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | CrewAI | Pydantic AI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 78 | 83 | Pydantic AI +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 95 | Pydantic AI +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 85 | Pydantic AI +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 80 | Pydantic AI +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Pydantic AI +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 90 | Pydantic AI +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 77 | Pydantic AI +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **80 · A** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | CrewAI | Pydantic AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | CrewAI | Pydantic |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 59k stars, 552k PyPI/wk | 20k stars, 1.3M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 4/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**CrewAI.** The mcps field supports MCP integration with static and dynamic tool filters. Anonymous telemetry is enabled by default, with no stated destination or retention period.

**Pydantic AI.** Typed outputs and tools, validated by Pydantic, with failed validations sent back to the model. Python only.

## Before you call either

### CrewAI

1. Set CREWAI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true before the first run
2. Put MCP keys in headers, not in the URL as the docs' Exa example does
3. Pin a stable version. Development builds share the crewai name on PyPI
4. Add a PRE_TOOL_CALL hook for any tool that writes or sends
5. Check the logs for MCP connection warnings. A failed server doesn't stop the agent

### Pydantic AI

1. Define the output type first. Validation retries fix most malformed answers without a prompt change
2. Start with the test model to check the wiring without a key
3. Use streamable HTTP for MCP. SSE is deprecated
4. Set usage limits on every run that calls paid models
5. Stay on a current release if agents download URLs. Its cloud-metadata blocklist was bypassed twice in May 2026

## Other comparisons with CrewAI or Pydantic AI

- [Claude Agent SDK vs CrewAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-crewai.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [CrewAI vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-google-adk.md)
- [CrewAI vs LangGraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-langgraph.md)
- [CrewAI vs OpenAI Agents SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md)
- [Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [LangGraph vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langgraph-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [OpenAI Agents SDK vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-pydantic-ai.md)