Claude Agent SDKvsGoogle Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Claude Agent SDK
Anthropic · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
6.92 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 7.5
- Cost
- 6.2
- Longevity
- 6.7
“Lets you ship Claude Code inside your product, on the condition that you never call it Claude Code.”
Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Google · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.15 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.0
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 7.0
“Ships Google Search grounding built in, so the agent can at least cite where it went wrong.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Claude Agent SDK | Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local, cloud | local, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | 200k tokens, 1M on select models | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | Yes | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude | Gemini, any LiteLLM model, Ollama |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT (SDK); use governed by Anthropic Commercial Terms | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 8,199 | 21,692 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Claude Agent SDK | Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.0 | Claude Agent SDK — Pick the Claude Agent SDK if the agent you are building needs to read, edit and run code on day one; pick the OpenAI Agents SDK if you need model choice or handoffs more than file tools. |
| El Crítico | 6.5 | 6.8 | Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) — Every default points at Google: Gemini is the default model and the sample code hard-codes gemini-flash-latest; LiteLLM is the escape hatch, and escape hatches are what you use on a bad day. |
| El Profesor | 7.0 | 6.8 | Claude Agent SDK — Eight documented built-in tools, subagents with their own context, hooks and resumable sessions; other languages get the same loop by shelling out to the CLI with -p and --output-format json. |
| La Inversora | 8.0 | 7.3 | Claude Agent SDK — Renaming the Claude Code SDK to the Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic saying the product is the loop, not the CLI, and the upsell above it is already named: Managed Agents. |
| La Jefa | 7.3 | 7.3 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 5.3 | 7.5 | Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) — Apache-2.0, McpToolset with StdioConnectionParams for any MCP server, expose my own tools as an MCP server, Ollama through LiteLLM, and go get google.golang.org/adk/v2 for the Go build. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.