OpenAI Agents SDKvsQwen-Agent
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
OpenAI Agents SDK
OpenAI · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.14 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 7.2
- Longevity
- 7.0
“Billed as the production-ready upgrade of Swarm, which tells you what Swarm was.”
Qwen-Agent
Alibaba (Qwen) · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.60 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.3
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 8.2
- Longevity
- 7.8
“The Browser Assistant reads whatever page you are currently on, so it has seen the documentation you were pretending to read.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | OpenAI Agents SDK | Qwen-Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local, cloud | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | YesThrough the code_interpreter extra, which writes and executes code rather than exposing a general shell. |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | Yes | YesThe Browser Assistant example ships as a Chrome extension that reads the page the user is on. |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | No |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | GPT, any LiteLLM-supported model | Qwen, Qwen3.5, DashScope, OpenAI-compatible endpoints |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | Yes | YesQwen-Agent talks to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so a self-hosted Qwen server works. |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 29,799 | 17,136 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | OpenAI Agents SDK | Qwen-Agent | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.0 | 8.0 | Qwen-Agent — Pick Qwen-Agent if you are building on Qwen models and want the framework the vendor uses itself; pick a neutral framework if you expect to change model families next year. |
| El Crítico | 6.8 | 6.8 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 7.0 | Qwen-Agent — The team publishes DeepPlanning as an open agent evaluation benchmark. Publishing the benchmark you are also measured by is a contribution and a conflict, and both should be stated. |
| La Inversora | 7.5 | 8.5 | Qwen-Agent — 17,063 stars and a trillion-dollar owner. This is not a product, it is customer acquisition for a model business, and it has been running since September 2023. |
| La Jefa | 7.3 | 7.0 | OpenAI Agents SDK — As a dependency it costs nothing per seat, is maintained by the vendor already on our invoice, and sends traces to that vendor's dashboard by default, which is a retention question. |
| El Hacker | 7.5 | 8.3 | Qwen-Agent — Apache-2.0, one pip install with the extras I choose, MCP support in the framework, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint means a self-hosted model of the same family runs the whole thing. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.