The deciding difference is operational: OpenClaw can run on infrastructure you control, OpenAI Agents SDK cannot. If that constraint is real for you, it settles the choice before anything else is considered.
Self-hosted gateway putting an agent in Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord and iMessage at once.
One Gateway process fans out to every channel plugin. Needs Node 22.22.3+ (26 recommended); the installer provisions it.
Lightweight loop with handoffs, guardrails and sessions.
| OpenClaw | OpenAI Agents SDK | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Open source | Open source |
| Pricing | open source | usage based |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Languages | Any language | Python, TypeScript |
| Install | curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash | pip install openai-agents |
| Keys required | None | OPENAI_API_KEY |
The deciding difference is operational: OpenClaw can run on infrastructure you control, OpenAI Agents SDK cannot. If that constraint is real for you, it settles the choice before anything else is considered. OpenClaw: Self-hosted gateway putting an agent in Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord and iMessage at once. OpenAI Agents SDK: Lightweight loop with handoffs, guardrails and sessions.
OpenClaw can run on your own infrastructure. OpenAI Agents SDK is a hosted service only.
OpenClaw is open source (open source). OpenAI Agents SDK is open source (usage based).
Every page here answers to Accept: text/markdown and returns the same content at roughly a tenth the tokens. No separate site, no toggle — same URL.
curl -s -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://newagent.build/compare/openclaw-vs-openai-agents-sdk