OpenAI Agents SDK
BuildersAgent frameworkOpenAI
Lightweight framework for building multi-agent workflows with tools, handoffs and tracing.
- Who it's for: people building software and AI agents
- Pricing: Open source (MIT); pay for model API usage (verify on the official site)
- Official site: https://openai.github.io/openai-agents-python/
- Source / changelog: https://github.com/openai/openai-agents-python
Best for / Not for
Best for
- Python or TypeScript developers building agents with tools and handoffs
- Prototyping multi-agent workflows quickly
- Teams that want built-in tracing
Not for
- No-code users
- Teams wanting explicit graph-based state machines (see LangGraph)
3 concrete use cases
- Support triage: A triage agent hands off to Billing and Technical specialists.
- Tool-using assistant: Wrap your API in a function tool so the agent can look up orders.
- Guardrailed workflow: Add input/output guardrails to block off-topic requests.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Small set of primitives; quick to learn
- Tracing in the OpenAI dashboard
- Open source
Cons
- API usage costs extra
- Best experience with OpenAI models
- Young, fast-changing API
How to get started with OpenAI Agents SDK in 10 minutes
- python -m venv .venv and activate it
- pip install openai-agents
- export OPENAI_API_KEY=...
- Create an Agent and run it with Runner.run
- Read our full playbook for tools and handoffs
Playbooks using OpenAI Agents SDK
- Your first AI agent with the OpenAI Agents SDK in 30 minutes
- Run local AI models with Ollama (and use them from your code)
Industries using OpenAI Agents SDK
OpenAI Agents SDK alternatives
- LangGraph: Library for building stateful, long-running agents as graphs, with persistence and human-in-the-loop.
- CrewAI: Python framework for orchestrating role-based teams of agents.
- LangChain: Open-source framework for building LLM apps and agents with integrations.
- LlamaIndex: Framework for building agents and RAG apps over your data; LlamaCloud for parsing.
- AutoGen: Open-source framework from Microsoft for multi-agent applications.
- Pydantic AI: Python agent framework built by the Pydantic team with type-safe outputs.
Recent changes
Weekly updates for OpenAI Agents SDK will be logged here as they appear in issues.