# LangGraph vs OpenAI Agents SDK

> OpenAI Agents SDK has a score of 86.5 (AA) against LangGraph's 70.6 (BB). Both do agent frameworks. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 27 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

OpenAI Agents SDK has a score of 86.5 (AA) against LangGraph's 70.6 (BB). Both do agent frameworks. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 27 points.

- LangGraph: grade BB, 70.6/100, rank #95 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/langgraph.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/langgraph.json
- OpenAI Agents SDK: grade AA, 86.5/100, rank #1 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-sdk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-sdk.json

## Which one, for what

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

Pick OpenAI Agents SDK for reliability (+10), schema & documentation (+6), agent ergonomics (+27), security & auth (+20), maintenance & community (+10), transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LangGraph | OpenAI Agents SDK | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 85 | OpenAI Agents SDK +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 95 | OpenAI Agents SDK +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 97 | OpenAI Agents SDK +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 80 | OpenAI Agents SDK +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 100 | OpenAI Agents SDK +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 92 | OpenAI Agents SDK +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.6 · BB** | **86.5 · AA** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LangGraph | OpenAI Agents SDK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | LangChain | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | API key |
| 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 | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-17 |
| Popularity | 42k stars, 2.3M npm/wk, 10.4M PyPI/wk | 30k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.9/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**LangGraph.** Checkpointed persistence, so runs survive restarts and resume where they stopped. No MCP client of its own. LangChain's langchain.mcp is in beta.

**OpenAI Agents SDK.** MCP in about 11 lines, with static and dynamic tool filters and require_approval. Tracing on by default, with model and tool content, sent to OpenAI.

## Before you call either

### LangGraph

1. Use a persistent checkpointer in production, not the in-memory one
2. Move from langchain-mcp-adapters to langchain.mcp, and expect a LangChainBetaWarning
3. Set LANGGRAPH_CLI_NO_ANALYTICS=1 on build machines
4. Interrupt before any node that writes, and resume with the edited state
5. Keep the checkpoint and SQLite packages current. Each had a high-severity advisory in late 2025

### OpenAI Agents SDK

1. Set OPENAI_AGENTS_DISABLE_TRACING=1, or OPENAI_AGENTS_TRACE_INCLUDE_SENSITIVE_DATA=0 to keep content out of traces
2. Pin to a minor version. Each 0.Y can break
3. Set require_approval on MCP servers that write
4. Name the model explicitly. The default changed in 0.20.0
5. Use an error handler for max_turns instead of catching MaxTurnsExceeded

## Other comparisons with LangGraph or OpenAI Agents SDK

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