# OpenAI Agents API vs OpenMausBot

> OpenAI Agents scores 73.3 (BB) to OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot.md (~5,650 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-06

OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenMausBot leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- OpenAI Agents API: grade BB, 73.3/100, rank #99 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-api.json
- OpenMausBot: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #384 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openmausbot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openmausbot.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1041 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### OpenAI Agents API (BB)

Good for: Teams that want OpenAI to run the agent loop, with sandboxes, MCP tools and subagents, and are fine with a beta API, US-only data residency and no Zero Data Retention.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 87 against 59
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 74
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 59

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Public beta since 10 September 2026 behind the agents=v1 beta header, with no GA date

### OpenMausBot (B)

Good for: A person or an outside agent who wants several CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, ACP CLIs) organised as named bots with their own computers, routines and approvals, driven by MCP or a CLI.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: New bots start at Full access, which approves provider permission requests without a card


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: OpenAI Agents API +28

- OpenAI Agents API (87): Project keys with restricted per-endpoint permissions, service accounts and workload identity, per the openai-api listing; we didn't confirm a key can be limited to /v1/agents (27 of 30). Automatic review for approvals, a sandbox network restricted to a host allowlist, vaults for secrets and a sandbox security guide (17 of 20). The agent reads web pages, MCP results and browser content; the sandbox security guide and approval flow are the mitigations, with no prompt-injection guide of its own found (8 of 15). Tracing, observability and usage per session and admin audit logs (15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 family, Bugcrowd bounty and a disclosure policy, per the openai-api listing (20). Not ZDR-eligible and US residency only, recorded under transparency. 27 + 17 + 8 + 15 + 20 = 87.
- OpenMausBot (59): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The harness binds to loopback and keys stay in `~/.openmausbot`, but PostHog usage analytics are on until switched off, with a daily snapshot of what is set up, and the CLI guide says API keys are saved in plaintext with mode 0600 (18). Approval cards for provider permission requests, a narrow Always allow, isolated Local VMs and cloud computers, own-computer control off by default, and an MCP server that cannot approve, delete or touch credentials. New bots start at Full access, bot changes to skills, profiles and team setup apply without approval, and new bots keep every connected-app tool until grants are assigned (10). The docs say web page instructions never authorise credential use and that one-time codes go only to the site that sent them, and imported bots arrive with no grants, but bots read one-time codes from connected email without asking again (9). Per-thread NDJSON event logs, an Inspector, a decision log for connected-app grants and Undo lines for bot changes (12). SECURITY.md with an email, GitHub private vulnerability reporting enabled and scope notes that name one open risk. No published advisories, security.txt or bug bounty. npm releases use trusted publishing with provenance, and the Windows installer is unsigned (10).

### Transparency & trust: OpenAI Agents API +26

- OpenAI Agents API (85): Closed service with clear terms, Apache-2.0 SDKs (15). Session state retained until deleted, deletable sessions and artifacts, not ZDR-eligible, US residency only, and the data-controls guide agrees; no retention period for artifacts after a sandbox expires (25 of 30). Dated deprecation notices with minimum periods for GA models; a beta API can change faster (15 of 20). Subprocessors and processing countries listed, per the openai-api listing (20). 15 + 25 + 15 + 20 = 75.
- OpenMausBot (59): Apache 2.0 outside `enterprise/`, which is source-available and needs a licence key in production. Deleting the folder leaves the open-source edition, and a CI job builds it (27). The privacy policy of 18 October 2026 (re-read on 2 November, unchanged) names Supamaus Software Private Limited and separates the local apps from the optional hosted service, but it says the apps contain no third-party analytics SDKs while the app loads posthog-js by default, and hosted account data is kept while needed with no period stated (12). No deprecation policy. Dated release notes, and older installers kept in a legacy releases repository (4). docs/analytics.md lists every event and property and how to switch it off, but analytics are on by default and the privacy policy does not mention them for the apps (14).

### Payments & pricing: OpenMausBot +20

- OpenAI Agents API (30): No machine payment protocol (0). Model, tool and container prices published without a login, and no fee for the API itself (20). The Free tier reading of the openai-api listing, half (10). Sign-up in a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.
- OpenMausBot (50): No payment protocol (0). MausBot Cloud, the hosted option, is priced by plan on a public page ($15, $49 and $99 a month, Team $169 and Business $599, or Business self-hosted $299 a month billed yearly, re-read on 2 November), with extra computer-hours at $0.05 each, so plan pricing (10). The app is free with no card or account (20). `npx openmausbot` installs and starts it with no signup (20).

### Maintenance & community: OpenAI Agents API +13

- OpenAI Agents API (87): Closed API. Last dated change 16 October 2026, Ultrafast mode and document skills (30). Four dated changelog entries in the 57 days since release, 10 September, 29 September, 9 October and 16 October (20). Changelog and help centre, as the openai-api listing reads them (12 of 15). Official SDKs carry beta.agents (15). SDK CI, per the openai-api listing (10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 87.
- OpenMausBot (74): v0.1.137 on 1 November 2026, after v0.1.135 on 31 October and v0.1.136 on 1 November (30). 128 desktop versions from 11 August to 30 October 2026, and three more since (20). The maintainer has 4,221 commits and the contributor list returns at least 100 accounts. 587 issues and pull requests were open from about 3,940 filed on 30 October, when we could only sample the newest open issues, nearly all from the last two days and mostly unanswered so far (per the 30 October check; github.com refuses our requests on 2 November) (16). Not in the official MCP registry, which returns nothing for mausbot (0). CI on main runs on every push with most finished runs passing, npm provenance and an SBOM for the bundled Cua runtime (per the 30 October check) (8). 30+20+16+0+8 = 74.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | OpenAI Agents API | OpenMausBot | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 90 | OpenMausBot +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 77 | OpenAI Agents API +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 87 | 59 | OpenAI Agents API +28 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 50 | OpenMausBot +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 74 | OpenAI Agents API +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 59 | OpenAI Agents API +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **73.3 · BB** | **65.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OpenAI Agents API | OpenMausBot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent harness |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Supamaus Software Private Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions` | no (local only) |
| Transports | https | stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted API under OpenAI's Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache 2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 20 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-10 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-18 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 8.2k stars, 3.5k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**OpenAI Agents API.** OpenAI's hosted agent runtime, the Codex harness behind one session call, with MCP, functions, web search, computer use, subagents and sandboxes on OpenAI or your own infrastructure. Documentation, errors and SDKs are thorough. It's still public beta, can't use Zero Data Retention and keeps data in the United States only.

**OpenMausBot.** A bounded 20-tool MCP server with typed schemas, annotations and idempotent sends, and a headless CLI with JSON output and exit codes, let another agent hand work to a bot team and wait on it. New bots start at Full access, so provider permission requests pass without a card, and usage analytics stay on until switched off.

## Before you call either

### OpenAI Agents API

1. POST https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions with a project key and the header OpenAI-Beta: agents=v1, or use client.beta.agents in the SDKs
2. Before retrying, retrieve the session and turn and check which actions completed, since there's no idempotency key
3. Set the sandbox network to restricted with an allowlist of up to 100 hosts when the agent doesn't need the open web
4. Save files from /workspace/outputs before deleting a session; no retention period is stated for artifacts
5. Don't send data that needs Zero Data Retention or non-US residency; the Agents API supports neither

### OpenMausBot

1. Ask the owner for a pairing code from Settings > Phone, exchange it at `POST /api/auth/pair`, and set `OPENMAUSBOT_TOKEN` with an explicit `OMB_PORT`
2. Pass a `send_id` with every `send_bot_message` and `send_channel_message`, so a retry returns the first receipt
3. Use `wait_for_conversation` instead of polling, and on `needs-user` stop and tell the owner a card is waiting
4. Check a bot's access level with the owner before sending work. New bots run at Full access unless defaults were changed
5. Ask the owner to switch off Settings > General > Usage analytics if nothing beyond model calls should leave the machine

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Agents API or OpenMausBot?

OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenMausBot leads on payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call OpenAI Agents API and OpenMausBot without installing anything?

OpenAI Agents API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions. OpenMausBot runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are OpenAI Agents API and OpenMausBot open source?

No open-source release is listed for OpenAI Agents API. OpenMausBot is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "openai-agents-api", "b": "openmausbot"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare openai-agents-api openmausbot`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openmausbot.json

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