# OpenAI Agents SDK vs AI SDK (slim)

> AI SDK scores 89.8 (AA) to OpenAI Agents SDK's 86.2 (AA) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.md (~3,800 tokens) · this version ~1,830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-vercel-ai-sdk
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

AI SDK scores 89.8 (AA) on agent readiness against OpenAI Agents SDK's 86.2 (AA), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.

- OpenAI Agents SDK: AA 86.2, rank #3 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-sdk.min.md
- AI SDK: AA 89.8, rank #1 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-ai-sdk.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.
- AI SDK, good for TypeScript teams building agents and chat UIs who want one API across many providers and a short path to MCP. Ahead on Reliability, 93 against 85; Schema & documentation, 100 against 95; Security & auth, 90 against 80.

| Category | OpenAI Agents SDK | AI SDK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 85 | 93 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 95 | 100 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 97 | 95 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 80 | 90 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 100 | 97 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 89 | 89 |

| Fact (where they differ) | OpenAI Agents SDK | AI SDK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Vercel Inc. |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-11-05 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes, with an opt-out |
| 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 30k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk | 28k stars, 44.9M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.9/5 (8) | none |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, AI SDK +10: 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.); AI SDK 90 (No telemetry until an OpenTelemetry integration is registered. String model IDs route to Vercel's AI Gateway by default, which is documented and needs a Vercel key, so it isn't silent (25). Per-tool approval, HMAC-signed approvals against forged client history, and Open Policy Agent rules in @ai-sdk/policy-opa, though sandboxes are experimental (20). ToolLoopAgent rejects system messages in prompts by default as an injection risk, URL fetches are checked against private addresses, and MCP HTTP transport refuses redirects by default, but there's no guardrail primitive (10). OpenTelemetry spans for every model and tool call to any backend, opt-in (15). HackerOne programme, a valid security.txt, SECURITY.md and two low-severity advisories published with fixed versions (20). Framework reading, so SOC 2 isn't scored.)
- Reliability, AI SDK +8: OpenAI Agents SDK 85 (Official packages on PyPI (Python 3.10 or newer, `requires-python` re-read on 1 November) and npm (20). The Tests workflow passed on main through the 4 October commits, per the 4 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). 9 open issues and 2 open pull requests on 4 October, per the 4 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). A written policy for 0.Y.Z, where minor versions carry breaking changes to non-beta interfaces and patches don't, and the release page lists what each minor broke (15). 0.23.0 and 0.24.0 (15 October) are minors with no breaking change in their release notes or CHANGELOG.md, and the release page still has no entry for either on 1 November. 0.24.0, still pre-1.0 and still the newest on PyPI on 1 November (0).); AI SDK 93 (Official npm packages, with `ai` 7.x requiring Node 22 or newer (20). A public CI workflow with lint, type checks, unit tests, Node-version tests, MCP tests on Windows and e2e tests runs on every push to main, and the newest completed CI runs on main passed on 6 November (25). 1,517 open issues and pull requests on 6 November from GitHub's API, with 1,059 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November; 47 of the 50 newest had a comment and 32 were closed (18). A written versioning page with breaking changes only in majors, experimental_ prefixes for unstable APIs and a migration guide per major (15). 7.0.163 (15). 20+25+18+15+15 = 93, up from 73 on 6 October, when GitHub couldn't be read.)
- Schema & documentation, AI SDK +5: OpenAI Agents SDK 95 (Typed Python API with a reference section in the docs (25). llms.txt with an API Reference Highlights section, re-read on 1 November (10). Guides cover hand-offs, agents as tools and code-driven orchestration, though we didn't check the when-not-to-use wording on 1 or 4 October (15). Function tools get their schemas from typed Python signatures (15). Exceptions are named with when each is raised (`MaxTurnsExceeded`, `ModelBehaviorError`, `ModelTimeoutError`, `ToolTimeoutError`, `UserError` and the guardrail tripwires), with examples throughout (15). Versioning policy and release notes per minor, and from 0.23.0 a release-please CHANGELOG.md in the repository (15).); AI SDK 100 (Typed TypeScript API with a reference section for every function (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each page (10). The docs say when to use each piece, such as a table of WorkflowAgent against ToolLoopAgent, a when-to-use section for subagents and harnesses, and HTTP over stdio for MCP in production (20). Tools take Zod or JSON Schema inputs (15). 38 error types documented in the reference, with error-handling guides and examples throughout (15). Versioning page and a changesets CHANGELOG per package (15).)