These tools integrates with

OpenAI APIvsOpenAI Agents SDK

GPT-5 era models, embeddings, and Responses API from OpenAI versus Production-grade multi-agent orchestration from OpenAI

Compare interactively in Explore →

Choose OpenAI API when…

  • •You need the broadest ecosystem and most integrations
  • •GPT-4 or o-series reasoning models are required
  • •Assistants API, fine-tuning, or batch API are needed

Choose OpenAI Agents SDK when…

  • •You're building multi-agent systems on top of OpenAI models
  • •You want explicit, auditable agent handoffs with full context passing
  • •You need a production-hardened framework with built-in tracing and guardrails

Side-by-side comparison

Field
OpenAI API
OpenAI Agents SDK
Category
LLM Infrastructure
Agent Frameworks
Type
Commercial
Open Source
Free Tier
✗ No
✓ Yes
Pricing Plans
API: Per token
—
GitHub Stars
—
⭐ 12,000
Health
—
●100 — Active

OpenAI API

API access to GPT-5, GPT-5.5, o3/o4 reasoning models, and the Responses API; plus embeddings, image, audio, and Realtime endpoints. The most widely deployed LLM API in production.

Website ↗

OpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI's production-grade agent framework, successor to Swarm. Core abstraction is explicit handoffs between agents carrying full context. Built for reliable multi-agent pipelines with native OpenAI tool use, tracing, and guardrails.

Website ↗GitHub ↗

Shared Connections1 tools both integrate with

CrewAI

Only OpenAI API (38)

AutoGenLlamaIndexLangChainPydanticAIsmolagentsAgnoMastraLiteLLMPortKeyLangfuse

Only OpenAI Agents SDK (6)

OpenAI APILangGraphGoogle Agent Development KitStrands AgentsMicrosoft Agent FrameworkClaude Agent SDK

Explore the full AI landscape

See how OpenAI API and OpenAI Agents SDK fit into the bigger picture — 235 tools, 543 relationships, all mapped.

Open in Explore →