OpenAI Agents SDK

What is OpenAI Agents SDK?

The OpenAI Agents SDK is an open-source Python framework for building agent workflows. An agent is a language model configured with instructions, tools, guardrails and handoffs, and agents can delegate to one another either as tools or through handoffs. Tools can be plain functions, MCP servers or hosted tools. The SDK adds sessions for automatic conversation history, built-in human-in-the-loop controls, and tracing so you can view and debug runs. Sandbox agents work inside a container for long tasks such as inspecting files, running commands and applying patches, while realtime and voice agents handle speech through the realtime API or a speech-to-text, agent, text-to-speech pipeline. It is provider-agnostic: it supports the OpenAI Responses and Chat Completions APIs and more than 100 other LLMs. It needs Python 3.10 or newer and installs with pip install openai-agents. The SDK itself is free; a JavaScript and TypeScript version exists separately, and model calls are billed by whichever provider you use.

Use cases

• Build multi-agent workflows in Python
• Hand off tasks between specialized agents
• Add guardrails to agent input and output
• Build realtime and voice agents
• Run agents in a sandboxed container workspace
• Trace and debug agent runs

Who it's for

• Python developers
• AI engineers
• Agent builders
• Startups building AI products

Why use OpenAI Agents SDK

• Gives a small set of building blocks (agents, tools, handoffs, guardrails) that cover most multi-agent designs without a heavy framework.
• Works with models beyond OpenAI, so you are not tied to one provider.
• Includes tracing and sessions out of the box, which saves building your own logging and memory layers.
• Supports voice and realtime agents in the same framework as text agents.
• Lets agents act on files and commands safely through container-based sandbox workspaces.

OpenAI Agents SDK features

• Agents configured with instructions, tools, guardrails and handoffs
• Agents as tools and handoffs for delegation
• Tools: functions, MCP and hosted tools
• Sandbox agents that work inside a container
• Realtime agents for voice and multimodal use over WebSocket
• Voice pipelines combining speech-to-text, an agent and text-to-speech
• Guardrails for input and output validation
• Human-in-the-loop mechanisms across runs
• Sessions with automatic conversation history, including optional Redis support
• Built-in tracing of agent runs

OpenAI Agents SDK integrations

• OpenAI Responses API
• Chat Completions API
• MCP
• LiteLLM
• any-llm
• Redis
• SQLAlchemy
• Docker

How to get started with OpenAI Agents SDK

1. Create a Python environment and install the package with pip install openai-agents, or add it with uv.
2. Set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable, or configure another supported provider.
3. Define an Agent with instructions, tools and any guardrails or handoffs.
4. Run it with Runner, using a text, sandbox, realtime or voice agent depending on the task.
5. Inspect traces of the run to debug and refine the workflow.

OpenAI Agents SDK limitations

• Requires Python 3.10 or newer
• A JavaScript and TypeScript version is a separate package
• The local Unix sandbox client works on macOS and Linux; Windows needs the Docker or a hosted sandbox client
• Pull requests are limited to repository collaborators

OpenAI Agents SDK pricing

OpenAI Agents SDK is open source, so you can use and self-host it for free.

Prices can change and may vary by country or exclude tax. Check the official pricing page.

OpenAI Agents SDK alternatives

The main OpenAI Agents SDK alternatives listed on Debuly are LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, Pydantic AI, Mastra and Strands Agents. The table compares pricing and platforms; order is A–Z.

1. 

   AutoGen

   Microsoft's MIT-licensed Python and .NET framework for multi-agent AI apps, now archived; new projects are pointed to Microsoft Agent Framework.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit AutoGen (official site)
2. 

   CrewAI

   Multi-agent framework and platform for building AI agent crews in Python or a visual editor, then deploying and monitoring them.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit CrewAI (official site)
3. 

   LangGraph

   Low-level open-source orchestration framework and runtime for building stateful, long-running AI agents as graphs.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit LangGraph (official site)
4. 

   Mastra

   Open source TypeScript framework for building AI agents and workflows, plus a hosted platform for Studio, Server, memory and observability.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit Mastra (official site)
5. 

   Pydantic AI

   A type-safe, model-agnostic Python framework for building agents and LLM applications, from the team behind Pydantic.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit Pydantic AI (official site)
6. 

   Strands Agents

   Free Apache-2.0 SDK for creating and running Python and TypeScript AI agents, with built-in tools, MCP, memory and multi-agent patterns.

   Developer platformsAutomation and agentsCoding
   Open sourceVisit Strands Agents (official site)

OpenAI Agents SDK FAQ

Sources & verification

Facts on this page come from the official sources below, each with the date we read it. Written by Debuly; the vendor did not review this page.

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