# OpenAI Agents SDK vs Strands Agents (slim)

> OpenAI Agents SDK scores 86.2 (AA) to Strands Agents's 80 (A) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md (~4,000 tokens) · this version ~1,980 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-strands-agents.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-strands-agents
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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OpenAI Agents SDK scores 86.2 (AA) on agent readiness against Strands Agents's 80 (A), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Strands Agents leads on security & auth. Both do agent frameworks.

- OpenAI Agents SDK: AA 86.2, rank #3 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-sdk.min.md
- Strands Agents: A 80, rank #15 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-agents.min.md
- OpenAI Agents SDK, good for Teams that want hand-offs, guardrails and approvals with little code, and are happy with OpenAI's tracing or will turn it off. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 97 against 87; Maintenance & community, 100 against 87; Transparency & trust, 89 against 72. Also No incidents deducted, where Strands Agents loses 4 points for them.
- Strands Agents, good for Python or TypeScript teams, especially on AWS, who want a model-driven loop with MCP, multi-agent patterns and approval gates. Ahead on Security & auth, 89 against 80. Also No key needed to call it.

| Category | OpenAI Agents SDK | Strands Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 85 | 87 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 95 | 95 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 97 | 87 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 80 | 89 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 100 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 89 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | OpenAI Agents SDK | Strands Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Amazon Web Services |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Popularity | 30k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk | 9.1k stars, 698k npm/wk, 8.9M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.9/5 (8) | none |

Why the edge:
- Transparency & trust, OpenAI Agents SDK +17: OpenAI Agents SDK 89 (MIT (30). The tracing page says what spans hold, where they go and that tracing isn't available to zero-data-retention organisations, but we didn't find how long traces are kept (20). Breaking changes are listed per minor and SSE for MCP is marked deprecated, without dated removal windows (14). Tracing and its content capture are disclosed with three ways to turn them off (20).); Strands Agents 72 (Apache-2.0 (30). A library that stores session state where the developer configures it. The default FileSessionManager kept sessions world-readable in /tmp until 1.48.0, which the October advisories record and fix (20). A written deprecation policy with warnings and removal at majors, without a dated support window (16). Telemetry is opt-in and documented (20). 30+20+16+20 = 86.)
- Maintenance & community, OpenAI Agents SDK +13: OpenAI Agents SDK 100 (0.24.0 on PyPI on 2026-10-15, 17 days before 1 November (30). 11 PyPI releases in the 90 days to 1 November, from 0.19.3 on 4 August to 0.24.0 (20). 9 open issues and 2 open pull requests, per the 4 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). Python 0.24.0 and @openai/agents 0.21.0 (tagged 20 October) both current (15). Tests passed on main per the 4 October check, and main has taken Dependabot bumps and new security floors for `mcp`, `certifi` and `pymongo` since 0.24.0 (10).); Strands Agents 87 (Python 1.64.0 and TypeScript 1.24.0 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Python 1.55.0 on 8 September, 1.61.0 on 14 October, 1.62.0 on 21 October and 1.63.0 on 30 October among many releases in 90 days (20). 664 open issues and 1,151 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 545 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 12 had a comment and 15 were closed, and 9 of the 40 newest open items carry a bug label. An issue-responder workflow runs on new issues (12). Both official SDKs are current (15). Dependency floors, security-audit workflows and CI passing on main (10). 30+20+12+15+10 = 87.)
- Agent ergonomics, OpenAI Agents SDK +10: OpenAI Agents SDK 97 (An agent with one MCP server is about 11 lines, with static and dynamic tool filters and tool-list caching (25). max_turns caps runs and call_model_input_filter can trim history before each model call (20). Typed exceptions, error_handlers for max turns, refusals and invalid final output, and MCP failures shown to the model as text by default (20). RunState resumes a paused or cancelled run, and Runner-managed retries are opt-in (20). An agent needs a name and instructions, but 0.20.0 changed the default model (7). Python and JavaScript (5).); Strands Agents 87 (Framework reading. An MCPClient is passed straight to the agent in a few lines and its lifecycle is managed, with tool filtering per client (22). Conversation managers, turn limits, token budgets and cancellation bound each run (20). Stop reasons and typed events, and hooks that can retry a model or tool call (16). Retry strategies, session managers that persist and resume a conversation, and interrupts that resume where they paused (17). Two official languages, but the default provider is Bedrock, which needs AWS credentials and model access (12). 22+20+16+17+12 = 87.)
- Security & auth, Strands Agents +9: OpenAI Agents SDK 80 (Tracing is on by default and trace_include_sensitive_data defaults to true, so model and function-call inputs and outputs go to OpenAI's Traces dashboard. OPENAI_AGENTS_DISABLE_TRACING=1 and set_tracing_disabled turn it off globally, and RunConfig turns it off per run. Through 0.23.1 the per-run opt-out didn't apply inside the caller's own trace. The fix shipped in 0.24.0 on 15 October (10). Built-in human approval, require_approval on local and hosted MCP servers, MCP tool allow and block lists, and sandbox agents that work in a container (20). Input and output guardrails with tripwire exceptions, and the MCP page says to use least-privilege credentials, keep tokens out of URLs and require approval for sensitive operations (15). Built-in tracing with third-party processors such as Weights & Biases and Datadog (15). SECURITY.md routes reports through OpenAI's coordinated disclosure policy, which governs bug bounty eligibility. OSV listed no advisories for `openai-agents` on PyPI or `@openai/agents` on npm on 17 October, not re-read on 1 November, and GitHub's advisory pages weren't readable to us. On main, unreleased on 1 November, pyproject.toml raises the `mcp` floor to 1.30.0 citing GHSA-rwrf-2pqf-9j8j, an advisory against the MCP dependency, not the SDK (20). Framework reading, so SOC 2 isn't scored.); Strands Agents 89 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). No usage analytics found in either SDK, and OpenTelemetry is opt-in (25). Interrupts and the harness's interventions gate tool calls behind human approval or Cedar policies, but the default sandbox is the local host (16). Guardrails, PII redaction and trusted message history pages, with Bedrock Guardrails integration (13). OpenTelemetry traces for every model and tool call (15). The AWS Vulnerability Disclosure Program on HackerOne and three advisories in October 2026 published with fixed versions (20). 25+16+13+15+20 = 89.)