# OpenAI Agents API vs OpenMausBot (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot.md (~5,650 tokens) · this version ~2,230 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-openmausbot
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

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: BB 73.3, rank #99 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-api.min.md
- OpenMausBot: B 65.4, rank #384 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openmausbot.min.md
- OpenAI Agents API, 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 Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- OpenMausBot, 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 Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card; Open source.

| Category | OpenAI Agents API | OpenMausBot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 88 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 77 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 87 | 59 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 87 | 74 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 85 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | 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 |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted API under OpenAI's Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache 2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 20 |
| 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 |

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.)