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Sim vs OpenAI AgentKit

Sim is the open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents visually, conversationally, or with code. Here is how Sim compares to OpenAI AgentKit on platform architecture, AI capabilities, integrations, pricing, security, and support. Every fact below is sourced and dated, last verified .

Sim is an open-source AI workspace for building, deploying, and managing AI agents. This page compares Sim to OpenAI AgentKit across platform architecture, AI capabilities, integrations, pricing, security and compliance, observability, and support, using sourced, dated facts for buyers evaluating both platforms.

What is Sim?

Sim is the open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents, connecting 270+ integrations and every major LLM to automate real work visually, conversationally, or with code.

What is OpenAI AgentKit?

OpenAI AgentKit bundled a visual Agent Builder, ChatKit embeddable chat UI, Connector Registry, Guardrails, and Evals for building agentic workflows on OpenAI's models. But OpenAI is winding down Agent Builder and Evals, with full shutdown November 30, 2026, in favor of the code-first Agents SDK or ChatGPT Workspace Agents.

Sim vs OpenAI AgentKit: feature-by-feature comparison

The sections below compare Sim and OpenAI AgentKit across platform and deployment, pricing, security and compliance, AI capabilities, integrations, observability, and support.

Platform & deployment

Sim offers a visual builder, supported self-hosting, and promotion across environments. OpenAI Agent Builder is a hosted visual canvas that OpenAI is retiring, leaving the code-first Agents SDK as its successor.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Builder type
Sim
Visual canvas, chat, or code (source: Sim Docs: Introduction (visual, natural-language, and API/SDK building), opens in a new tab)Visual drag-and-drop canvas, natural-language (Chat), or code (API/SDK)
OpenAI AgentKit
Visual canvas, deprecated in favor of code-first SDK (source: OpenAI Community: Deprecation notice - Agent Builder, opens in a new tab)Visual canvas (Agent Builder) for drag-and-drop multi-agent workflow construction, paired with a code-first alternative (Agents SDK, Python/TypeScript). Agent Builder was a visual, node-based canvas for creating and versioning multi-agent workflows with typed inputs/outputs and live-data preview. It is being deprecated in favor of the code-first Agents SDK, making the long-term builder paradigm code-based rather than visual.
Learning curve
Sim
Low, plus natural-language Chat for non-technical users (source: Sim Docs: Introduction (visual, natural-language, and API/SDK building), opens in a new tab)Low for visual building; natural-language Chat surface (with a workflow-scoped Copilot) for non-technical builders. Chat lets users describe a workflow in plain language and have Sim scaffold or edit it; the visual canvas requires no code to connect blocks.
OpenAI AgentKit
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Agent Builder targeted low-code use and the Agents SDK targets Python/TypeScript developers, but no source quantifies the learning curve for either.
Self-hosting
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Self-Hosting with Docker, opens in a new tab)Yes: Docker Compose or Kubernetes (Helm)
OpenAI AgentKit
Not self-hostable; only ChatKit frontend can be (source: OpenAI Community: Deprecation notice - Agent Builder, opens in a new tab)Not self-hostable as a platform; only the ChatKit frontend/SDK can run on your own infrastructure against a custom backend. Agent Builder, Evals, and Connector Registry are OpenAI-hosted SaaS features with no self-host option. ChatKit's advanced integration path lets you run the ChatKit Python SDK on your own infrastructure, but the agent workflow logic is code you write and host yourself, not a self-hosted version of Agent Builder.
Deployment options
Sim
Cloud-hosted or self-hosted, no mid-tier VPC option (source: Sim Docs: Self-Hosting, opens in a new tab)Cloud-hosted (managed, multi-tenant SaaS) or self-hosted (Docker/Kubernetes). No documented managed single-tenant/VPC hosting tier in between. The Enterprise plan's only hosting-related row in the pricing comparison table is a boolean "Self Hosting" flag; there is no dedicated-instance/VPC offering.
OpenAI AgentKit
OpenAI-hosted only; Agents SDK deploys anywhere (source: Cloudflare Blog: Building agents with OpenAI and Cloudflare Agents SDK, opens in a new tab)OpenAI-hosted cloud only for Agent Builder/Evals (being shut down); Agents SDK code can be deployed anywhere that runs Python/TypeScript (e.g., AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, FastAPI servers). There is no official Docker/Kubernetes distribution of AgentKit itself; deployment flexibility comes from the open-source Agents SDK being ordinary application code, as demonstrated by third-party deployment guides running it on Cloudflare Workers/Durable Objects and on AWS Lambda behind a FastAPI wrapper.
Templates
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: templates gallery and APIs removed, opens in a new tab)No: the pre-built workflow template gallery (landing and in-workspace) was removed platform-wide. Sim now surfaces per-integration starter prompts instead of a template library.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Cookbook: AgentKit walkthrough, opens in a new tab)Yes: Agent Builder provided templates for common workflow patterns, and a ChatKit starter template. Agent Builder let users start from templates and drag and drop nodes for each step in a workflow. This feature is tied to Agent Builder, which is being deprecated.
License
Sim
Apache 2.0 core; enterprise features separately licensed (source: Sim Docs: Introduction (FAQ - Open Source License), opens in a new tab)Apache License 2.0 for the core; enterprise features are under the separate Sim Enterprise License, which requires an Enterprise subscription for production use
OpenAI AgentKit
Proprietary platform; Agents SDK is MIT (source: GitHub: openai/openai-agents-python (license field), opens in a new tab)Proprietary (Agent Builder/ChatKit/Evals platform); the Agents SDK (openai-agents-python) is open source under MIT license. AgentKit as a hosted product suite is proprietary SaaS. The companion Agents SDK repository is MIT-licensed and open source on GitHub.
Environment promotion
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Workspace Forks, opens in a new tab)Yes: fork a whole workspace into a dev/qa/prod-style child, diff it, and promote or roll back changes in either direction. Credential and env-var remapping is required before every promote, so secrets are never silently copied across environments. Gated to Enterprise plan on hosted Sim, or a FORKING_ENABLED flag on self-hosted deployments.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agent Builder guide (deprecation notice), opens in a new tab)No dev/qa/prod-style environment promotion for full projects. Only single-workflow versioning and code export. Agent Builder workflows export as code (Agents SDK, Python or TypeScript) or JSON templates, and templates can sync with a Git repo for reuse, but there's no built-in feature to clone a whole project and promote it between dev/qa/prod environments. Promoting environments means exporting to code and managing them yourself, which lines up with third-party reviews noting Agent Builder lacks production-grade deployment pipelines.
Version control
Sim
Deployment rollback plus Copilot edit diff/revert (source: Sim codebase: WorkflowDiffEngine, opens in a new tab)Deployed-version history with rollback for every workflow; server-persisted checkpoint/revert and visual diff (accept/reject) specifically for Copilot AI edits. Manual drag-and-drop undo/redo is client-side/localStorage only (capped at 100 ops, 5 stacks), not server-synced across devices. Deployment history does not include an arbitrary version-to-version diff tool, and knowledge base documents have no version history.
OpenAI AgentKit
Version snapshots, no rollback or diff view (source: Agent Builder guide, opens in a new tab)Publish creates a major version snapshot; API can target older versions; autosave + manual checkpoints, but no documented rollback UI, diff/compare view, or branching. Publishing a workflow in Agent Builder creates a new major version acting as a snapshot, and API calls can target an older version. The workspace autosaves continuously and supports manual version checkpoints, but there is no rollback button, visual diff/compare-versions view, or branching. Third-party reviews note Agent Builder still lacks production-grade features like rollback, observability, and deployment pipelines.
Realtime collaboration
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: realtime presence handler (cursor/selection broadcast), opens in a new tab)Yes: live multiplayer editing of the same workflow canvas, with real-time cursors, selection broadcasting, and synced concurrent edits over a dedicated realtime backend
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agent Builder | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: OpenAI does not document live, multi-user editing of the same Agent Builder canvas with shared cursors or selections. Teams instead collaborate asynchronously, by importing/exporting workflow JSON, syncing with a Git repo, and publishing versioned snapshots.. Some third-party blog posts describe Agent Builder as supporting 'collaborative editing,' but this isn't confirmed in official OpenAI docs and likely refers to the async JSON/Git sharing model.
Native file storage
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: file share modal (password/email/SSO modes), opens in a new tab)Yes: a native Files area with folder hierarchy, link-based sharing (public, password, email OTP, or SSO auth), and a workspace-level Recently Deleted view covering workflows, tables, knowledge bases, files, and folders. Admins can restrict which share-auth modes (public/password/email/SSO) a permission group is allowed to use.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Tools: Connectors and MCP servers | OpenAI Platform, opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder/AgentKit has no file storage system of its own (no folders, link sharing, or deleted-item recovery). Files are instead handled through the Connector Registry, which points to external storage providers (Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams), or through per-call uploads to file search/code interpreter.
Native data tables
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Tables, opens in a new tab)Yes: a native spreadsheet-like Tables feature (typed columns, not an external DB connector) with full keyboard support (arrow keys, Tab, copy-paste bulk load, Cmd/Ctrl+Z undo) and atomic per-row writes from multiple workflows at once. No public fixed row-limit figure is documented (guidance says paginate reads past ~100k rows); a workflow can also be wired to run per row via a "workflow column."
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Node reference | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: AgentKit has no equivalent to a native Tables feature. Agent Builder's 'State' and 'Data' nodes are in-workflow variables and data-reshaping steps scoped to a single run, not a persistent, spreadsheet-like data store with typed columns, rows, or keyboard navigation (arrow keys, copy-paste across cells) that other workflows or runs can read and write.. Set State defines counters, flags, or contextual values referenced by later nodes in the same run; Data nodes reshape outputs (e.g., object to array) or define global variables for that run. Neither persists rows across separate workflow executions or exposes a spreadsheet UI. Structured, persistent storage that outlives a single run has to come from an external system reached through a connector or MCP server (e.g., a Google Sheets or database connector), not a database or table feature built into AgentKit itself.
Rich-text document editor
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: rich markdown editor, opens in a new tab)Yes: markdown files opened in the Files viewer render in an inline WYSIWYG-style rich markdown editor, with inline @-mention links to other Sim resources
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: ChatKit widgets | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder/AgentKit has no native, inline rich-text (WYSIWYG) document editor. Text is written in plain node fields and prompts, and ChatKit widgets render structured cards, lists, and components rather than acting as a document editor.
Sub-workflows (composition)
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Workflow block, opens in a new tab)Yes: a Workflow block calls another saved workflow as a step, waits for it to finish, runs its latest deployed version, and maps parent variables into the child's input form. Self-references are blocked to prevent infinite recursion.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Node reference | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder's node reference (Start, Agent, Note, File search, Guardrails, MCP, If/else, While, Human approval, Transform, Set state) has no node that calls a separate saved workflow as a nested step and waits for it to finish. Composition across agents happens via handoffs between Agent nodes within the same workflow canvas, not by invoking another independently saved workflow as a reusable child step.. A workflow can call other agents through handoffs (execution transfers to another Agent node, carrying conversation state), but that is agent-to-agent handoff inside one workflow graph, not a call-another-workflow-and-return block. The only way to reuse a workflow elsewhere is to export it as Agents SDK code and call that code from other code, a code-level reuse pattern rather than a visual sub-workflow step.
Custom blocks (org-wide reuse)
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: custom-blocks publish API (admin gate), opens in a new tab)Yes: a user with admin access on a workflow's workspace can publish its deployed version as a named, iconed custom block that appears in the block toolbar for the whole organization. Inputs are read live from the source workflow's Start block; the publisher picks which outputs to expose. The block always runs the source workflow's latest deployed version, and its internal steps and intermediate values are never exposed to consumers. Enterprise-gated on Sim Cloud; self-hosted deployments can opt in via a feature flag. Distinct from the Workflow (sub-workflow) block, which composes a workflow the same author controls, and from custom code/tool blocks, which run inline code rather than a full deployed workflow.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Node reference | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder has no feature to publish a workflow as a named, encapsulated block that other org members can drop into their own separate workflows.. Its node palette has no 'workflow as a block' node, and the documented reuse paths (templates, ChatKit, SDK code export) give teammates a copy or an endpoint, never a live encapsulated block that stays in sync with the source workflow's latest published version.

Pricing

Sim combines a per-user subscription with usage credits and bring-your-own-key exemptions, while OpenAI charges for model tokens and tools without a dedicated AgentKit plan. Estimate workflow volume, token consumption, and paid tool calls when comparing total cost.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Pricing model
Sim
Credit-based billing; BYOK skips model usage charges (source: Sim Pricing, opens in a new tab)Credit-based usage billing (Stripe); bring-your-own-key calls skip Sim's model and tool usage charge, while the base per-run charge still applies
OpenAI AgentKit
Usage-based tokens plus tool fees (source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)Usage-based (per-token model pricing plus per-call/per-session tool pricing). No flat AgentKit subscription. Agent Builder was free to design in. Costs are incurred only when workflows run, through standard OpenAI API token pricing (e.g., gpt-5.5: $5.00/M input, $30.00/M output tokens) plus tool-specific charges: Code Interpreter runs $0.03-$1.92 per session by memory tier (billed per minute, five-minute minimum), and File Search costs $0.10/GB-day for storage (1 GB free) plus $2.50 per 1,000 tool calls. Agent Builder itself is being deprecated, with full shutdown November 30, 2026, so this pricing model applies only until then.
Entry paid plan
Sim
Pro plan at $25/user/month (source: Sim Pricing, opens in a new tab)Pro: $25 per user/month
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)No dedicated AgentKit plan; costs are pay-as-you-go API usage starting from $0 committed spend. There is no AgentKit-specific entry paid tier. Billing is metered API usage (tokens plus tool calls) as described under pricing model.
Free tier
Sim
(source: Sim Pricing, opens in a new tab)Yes: Free plan with 1,000 one-time credits (worth $5 on Sim Cloud), granted once at signup and never refreshed — no monthly reset and no weekly refresh (weekly refresh is a paid-plan feature)
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)Yes, partially: Agent Builder was free to design in, and ChatKit/File Search each include an initial 1 GB of free storage before per-GB-day charges apply. Agent Builder let you design and iterate at zero cost until you ran a workflow. ChatKit includes 1 GB of free file/image storage per account per month before $0.10/GB-day applies, and File Search includes a one-time free GB of storage before the same rate applies, a standing allowance rather than a recurring daily reset.
Bring your own key
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Bring Your Own Key (BYOK), opens in a new tab)Yes: bring-your-own-key provider calls skip Sim's model and tool usage charge (the base per-run charge still applies); workspace keys work on any plan, organization keys need a team or Enterprise plan, and multiple keys stored for the same provider are round-robin rotated, skipping any key that fails to decrypt
OpenAI AgentKit
No; OpenAI models only (source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)Not applicable / no. AgentKit runs exclusively on OpenAI's own billed models; there is no BYOK mechanism to swap in a different LLM provider's API key. Since all model calls route through OpenAI's own metered API, there's no bring-your-own-key concept for third-party LLM providers within Agent Builder or the Agents SDK the way a multi-LLM platform would offer it.

Security & compliance

OpenAI publishes a broader certification portfolio, while Sim provides more direct infrastructure control through self-hosting and configurable credential, retention, session, and audit policies.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
SOC 2
Sim
(source: Sim Landing Page, opens in a new tab)Yes: SOC2 compliant
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Trust Portal (SafeBase), opens in a new tab)Yes: SOC 2 Type 2, plus ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, and 27701 certifications. OpenAI's most recent SOC 2 report covers January 1, 2025 through June 30, 2025 for Security, Availability, Confidentiality, and Privacy Trust Services Criteria across the API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, and ChatGPT Team.
Data residency
Sim
Full control via self-hosting; Cloud region toggle is global, not per-customer (source: Sim Docs: Self-Hosting with Docker, opens in a new tab)Full data control via self-hosting (Docker/Kubernetes); data never leaves customer infrastructure when self-hosted. On Sim Cloud, async job execution has an internal US/EU region toggle, but it is deployment-wide, not a customer-selectable per-workspace residency option
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Expanding data residency access to business customers worldwide, opens in a new tab)Yes: data residency at rest available in US, Europe, UK, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, India, and UAE for eligible enterprise customers. Eligible ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, ChatGPT for Healthcare, and API platform customers can store content at rest in these regions; eligible customers can also opt into in-region GPU inference in the U.S. or Europe.
Role-based access control
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Roles and Permissions, opens in a new tab)Yes: admin/write/read workspace permissions, org-level admin/member roles, plus Enterprise-tier permission groups that allow/deny-list specific models, tools, and integrations per group on top of those base roles. See modelAndToolGovernance and credentialGovernance for the finer-grained permission-groups layer.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: RBAC | OpenAI Help Center, opens in a new tab)Yes, at the workspace level. Workspace Owners create custom roles and use per-role "Connected data" controls to allow or restrict which apps/connectors (and their actions) each role can use, with all apps disabled by default. A separate Global Admin Console (beta) adds a distinct Global admin role for centralizing access management across workspaces. Granular access scoped to individual Agent Builder workflows is not documented.. ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu/Business workspaces let Workspace Owners create custom roles and, under each role's Connected data section, turn on "Allow members to use apps" and select which specific apps that role can access; when an admin enables an app, they can also set action controls (allow all actions, read-only, or a custom action set). All apps are disabled by default until an admin turns them on. The Global Admin Console is a newer, separate beta surface with its own Global admin role and an Access tab for centralizing SSO, domain, and external-application access across workspaces. This is workspace/role-level RBAC over apps and connectors, not permissions scoped to individual Agent Builder workflows.
Audit logging
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: auditLog table, opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated audit_log table plus workflow execution logs, exposed via a public /v1/audit-logs API (Enterprise plan), plus continuous SIEM/warehouse export to Datadog, S3, GCS, Azure Blob, BigQuery, or Snowflake via a data-drains dispatcher
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Admin and Audit Logs API for the API Platform | OpenAI Help Center, opens in a new tab)Yes, at the platform level. An Admin/Audit Logs API covers the API Platform (API key creation, role changes, login attempts, project changes), and a separate Compliance Logs Platform covers ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu workspaces (conversations, file uploads, admin actions, auth events, agent activity). No source ties audit logging specifically to individual Agent Builder workflow runs.. OpenAI provides an Admin/Audit Logs API for the API Platform and a Compliance Logs Platform for ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu workspaces, covering admin actions, authentication events, and agent activity broadly, but no documentation confirms audit logging scoped specifically to Agent Builder workflow executions.
Additional compliance
Sim
SOC2 (source: Sim Enterprise Page, opens in a new tab)SOC2. Self-hosting is the primary lever Sim offers for data-residency-sensitive compliance needs beyond SOC2, rather than additional certifications.
OpenAI AgentKit
FedRAMP Moderate, PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001/27701, HIPAA BAA (source: ChatGPT Enterprise and API Platform | FedRAMP Marketplace, opens in a new tab)FedRAMP Moderate Authorization (ChatGPT Enterprise and API Platform), PCI DSS v4.0.1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27701:2019; supports customer HIPAA compliance via BAA and GDPR/CCPA via DPA; FERPA covered via a separate Student Data Privacy Agreement for ChatGPT Edu. OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise and API Platform hold FedRAMP Moderate (Class C) authorization per the FedRAMP Marketplace listing. OpenAI's trust portal lists PCI DSS v4.0.1 for payment-processing components, a SOC 2 Type 2 examination (Security, Availability, Confidentiality, Privacy criteria) covering the API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, and ChatGPT Team, plus ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017:2015, 27018:2019, and 27701:2019 certifications, and lists GDPR and CCPA. OpenAI offers a Data Processing Addendum for GDPR/CCPA and a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA-regulated customers on ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu and the API (not standard ChatGPT Business); this is enablement rather than OpenAI itself being HIPAA-certified, since HIPAA has no formal certification body. FERPA compliance for ChatGPT Edu/for Teachers runs through a separate Student Data Privacy Agreement rather than the general DPA.
Model & tool governance
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: PermissionGroupConfig (allowedModelProviders, deniedModels, deniedTools), opens in a new tab)Yes: enterprise "permission groups" let an admin allow-list/deny-list specific LLM providers and models, and separately deny specific tools/integrations (or disable all MCP or custom tools) per group, layered on top of workspace admin/write/read roles. This does not control whether an LLM provider retains prompts. Sim offers no "zero data retention" mode or governed AI gateway. A separate, Enterprise-gated feature lets orgs set a log-retention window and redact PII, but that only controls how long Sim itself keeps execution logs.
OpenAI AgentKit
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented in available vendor sources.
Credential governance
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Roles and Permissions, opens in a new tab)Yes: shared credentials (connected accounts, service accounts, workspace secrets) are their own nested permission level (Member/Admin) below organization and workspace roles, and enterprise permission groups can further allow-list specific integrations and restrict which file-share auth modes (public/password/email/SSO) a group may use. A user's personal environment variables/secrets are never shared or inherited by anyone, including org owners/admins.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: RBAC | OpenAI Help Center, opens in a new tab)Yes: ChatGPT Enterprise/Business workspaces support role-based access control (RBAC) that restricts which connectors/apps (and by extension their underlying stored credentials) a given custom role or permission group may use, per-app and per-role, with all apps disabled by default until an admin enables them for specific roles.. Granularity is at the connector/app level (e.g. this role may use Google Drive, that role may not) rather than restricting individual named credential instances within a connector type.
Single sign-on (SSO)
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Single Sign-On (SSO), opens in a new tab)Yes: SAML 2.0 and OIDC single sign-on, with users routed to SSO by their email domain, plus SCIM 2.0 directory provisioning for Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, OneLogin, and JumpCloud that creates, updates, deactivates, and removes members and maps pushed groups to permission groups, workspace access, and the organization admin role
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Configuring SSO | OpenAI Help Center, opens in a new tab)Yes: OpenAI supports SAML-based SSO for ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu/Business and the API Platform, with organization auto-provisioning available either via Automatic Account Creation (email-domain matched invitations) or SCIM-based Directory Sync that invites users based on Identity Provider group membership.. Requires prior verification of at least one domain to enable SSO.
Custom session policy
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Session Policies, opens in a new tab)Yes: Enterprise organization owners and admins can set a max session lifetime (1 to 8,760 hours from sign-in, regardless of activity) and an idle timeout (48 to 8,760 hours without activity), applied to every member on every device. Both limits are optional; leaving them empty keeps the default of 30-day sessions that extend automatically while a member stays active. A separate "Sign out all members" action immediately revokes every member session in the organization except the admin's own, for use after a security incident or an offboarding wave. The 48-hour idle floor exists because session activity is recorded at most once per day, so a shorter window could sign out members who are actively working.
OpenAI AgentKit
No documented admin session lifetime or idle timeout (source: Admin rollout guide | ChatGPT Learn, opens in a new tab)Not publicly documented: OpenAI does not document an admin-configurable session lifetime or inactivity timeout for ChatGPT workspaces or the API Platform. The workspace identity controls it does document are SSO/SAML, domain verification, SCIM provisioning, MFA enforcement through the identity provider, and RBAC, so how often members must re-authenticate is set at the upstream IdP rather than by a policy in OpenAI's admin console.. OpenAI's admin rollout guide and Work admin FAQ enumerate identity, access-governance, and compliance controls without a session-duration or idle-timeout setting, and the Codex authentication documentation describes tokens being refreshed automatically during active use ('Codex refreshes tokens automatically during use before they expire, so active sessions usually continue without requiring another browser login') rather than an absolute cap an admin can shorten. No session policy specific to AgentKit or Agent Builder is published.
Vetted first-party integrations
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: first-party block directory, opens in a new tab)Yes: every integration in Sim's catalog is first-party authored and code-reviewed through the standard pull-request process in the main Sim repository; there is no public marketplace where an arbitrary third party can publish and have other users install executable tool code without going through Sim's own review. Custom code steps run inside Sim's own isolated-vm sandbox rather than as an installable third-party skill package, so the supply-chain trust boundary is Sim's codebase review, not an open registry.
OpenAI AgentKit
Partial: reviewed first-party catalog, but open MCP server connections (source: App submission guidelines | Apps SDK | OpenAI Developers, opens in a new tab)Partial: pre-built Connector Registry entries (Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, Teams) and the ChatGPT Apps directory go through OpenAI identity verification and app review, but Agent Builder's MCP node and the Agents SDK can connect to any third-party MCP server with no vendor vetting pipeline documented. OpenAI's own Connector Registry connectors and ChatGPT Apps directory submissions require developer identity verification and pass through an OpenAI app-review process before listing, per the App submission guidelines. But Agent Builder's MCP node and the Agents SDK let a builder point at any hosted MCP server, first-party or community-run, with no OpenAI review of that server's code. This client-only MCP model mirrors the wider MCP ecosystem, where unreviewed community servers have shipped malicious behavior elsewhere (for example, an unofficial third-party Postmark MCP server was found in September 2025 silently BCC'ing all outgoing email to an attacker). No security incident specific to OpenAI's own Connector Registry, Apps directory, or Agent Builder MCP integration has been publicly reported.
PII redaction
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Guardrails Block, opens in a new tab)Yes: a Guardrails workflow block detects and blocks or masks PII (30+ entity types across the US, UK, and several other countries) via Microsoft Presidio, in addition to the org-level data-retention PII policy applied to stored data
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Safety in building agents | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)Yes: Agent Builder's Guardrails node includes a built-in PII detection and redaction capability that automatically catches and masks sensitive data (names, phone numbers, account IDs) flowing through a workflow, alongside jailbreak-detection and content-moderation checks, distinct from generic output-validation guardrails.
Custom data retention
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Data Retention, opens in a new tab)Yes: Enterprise orgs can independently configure log retention, soft-deletion cleanup, and Chat/Copilot task cleanup (chats, runs, checkpoints, Inbox tasks) at 1 day to 5 years or Forever, applied org-wide with no per-workspace override
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Compliance Platform for Enterprise and Edu Customers, opens in a new tab)No: OpenAI's Compliance Logs Platform retains data for a fixed 30 days (not org-configurable), and API Platform audit logs have no fixed retention/TTL at all rather than an admin-adjustable window; there is no documented org-configurable retention setting for Agent Builder workflow execution logs specifically.. Customers wanting longer retention must build their own continuous log-download pipeline rather than set a retention window in the product.
White-labeling
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Whitelabeling, opens in a new tab)Yes: Enterprise orgs can replace the logo, wordmark, brand name, and primary/accent theme colors across the workspace UI with their own
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Theming and customization in ChatKit | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: ChatKit (the deployment surface for Agent Builder workflows) only supports surface-level theming, colors, typography, density, and rounded corners, not full white-labeling. Deeper brand replacement, such as changing the chat bubble shape, header layout, or removing OpenAI product identity, requires forking the ChatKit library.. A third-party technical review explicitly notes deep white-label branding is 'impossible without forking the entire ChatKit library.'

AI capabilities

Sim provides visual and natural-language building across multiple model providers. Agent Builder's visual selector is limited to OpenAI models and is being retired, although the separate Agents SDK can reach other providers through code-level adapters.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Multi-LLM support
Sim
28 providers plus dynamic-resolution aggregators (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, etc.) (source: Sim codebase: PROVIDER_DEFINITIONS, opens in a new tab)28 provider integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google/Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Azure Anthropic, Vertex, Bedrock, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, Cerebras, Fireworks, Together, Ollama, OpenRouter, and more), with OpenRouter, LiteLLM, vLLM, and Ollama resolving models dynamically at runtime rather than from a fixed list, so effective model reach extends well beyond the 28 named providers. apps/sim/providers/models.ts defines 28 provider entries.
OpenAI AgentKit
Agent Builder: OpenAI only. Agents SDK: provider-agnostic via adapters (source: OpenAI API Pricing (model list), opens in a new tab)Agent Builder's Agent node model selector is OpenAI models only (GPT-5 family, e.g. gpt-5.5, gpt-5.4, gpt-5.4-mini); the separate, code-first Agents SDK is provider-agnostic, with built-in extension points plus best-effort beta LiteLLM/Any-LLM adapters covering 100+ providers (Anthropic, Google, Mistral, and others). Agent Builder's visual canvas only lets you pick from OpenAI's own model lineup. The Agents SDK is a different product: it ships official, built-in provider-integration points (set_default_openai_client, a custom ModelProvider, or per-agent Agent.model) for calling any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, plus best-effort beta adapters for LiteLLM and Any-LLM that route to 100+ non-OpenAI providers. OpenAI's own docs note that adapters add a compatibility layer, so feature support and request semantics can vary by provider and should be validated independently.
Agent reasoning blocks
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: block registry, opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated agent, function-calling, RAG, code-execution, and evaluation blocks, not just data routing
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Cookbook: AgentKit walkthrough, opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated agent/reasoning nodes distinct from plain data routing. Agent Builder's canvas included distinct node types for agents, tools, and logic, versus simple data-passing nodes, supporting multi-agent workflows with typed inputs/outputs.
Natural-language building
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Chat (build and edit workflows), opens in a new tab)Yes: Chat + in-editor AI Copilot can build and modify workflows from natural-language requests
OpenAI AgentKit
Not publicly documentedUnknown. No primary OpenAI source describes a chat-to-build / natural-language-to-workflow generation feature within Agent Builder itself, distinct from agents' own natural-language capabilities at runtime.
Knowledge base / RAG
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: KB schema (pgvector + tsvector), opens in a new tab)Yes: hybrid vector (pgvector) plus full-text (tsvector) search knowledge base, 15 supported file types (csv, doc, docx, htm, html, json, jsonl, md, pdf, pptx, txt, xls, xlsx, yaml, yml), configurable chunking, plus 69+ connectors that continuously sync external sources (Google Drive, Confluence, Slack, Gmail, GitHub, HubSpot, Linear, Jira, and more) into the knowledge base rather than a one-shot upload
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)Yes: File Search tool provides built-in vector-store-backed retrieval. File Search is billed at $0.10/GB-day storage (1 GB free) plus $2.50 per 1,000 tool calls, giving Agent Builder and Agents SDK workflows a built-in RAG/file-retrieval capability.
MCP support
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Using MCP Tools, opens in a new tab)Yes: both MCP client (call external MCP servers) and MCP server (expose Sim workflows as MCP tools)
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Introducing AgentKit (via search excerpt), opens in a new tab)Yes: Agent Builder supports hosted MCP servers as tools. Agent Builder supports MCP servers, letting an agent use any hosted MCP server to take real-world actions, and the Connector Registry also lists third-party MCPs.
Evaluation & guardrails
Sim
LLM-judge Evaluator plus Guardrails validation block (source: Sim Docs: Evaluator Block, opens in a new tab)Evaluator block (LLM-judge scoring against user-defined named metrics) and Guardrails block (JSON validity, regex, RAG/hallucination scoring, PII detection/masking). These are per-call scoring/validation primitives, not a batch golden-dataset eval-suite runner or A/B prompt-testing harness.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Introducing AgentKit (via search excerpt), opens in a new tab)Yes: Evals (datasets, trace grading, automated prompt optimization) and a separate open-source Guardrails layer, but Evals is being deprecated alongside Agent Builder. AgentKit shipped Datasets, Trace grading, and Automated prompt optimization under Evals, plus an open-source modular Guardrails safety layer (PII masking, jailbreak detection). Evals is being retired alongside Agent Builder.
Human-in-the-loop
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Human in the Loop Block, opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated approval block that pauses a run and waits for a human-submitted "Resume Form," with durable pause/resume via persisted execution snapshots and notification hooks (e.g. Slack, email) carrying the resume link
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agent Builder: Node reference (Human approval node), opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated 'Human approval' node in Agent Builder; SDK-level tool-approval interrupts in Agents SDK. Agent Builder has a first-class Human approval logic node that lets a workflow pause for a person to approve or reject a step before continuing (e.g., approve/reject an agent-drafted email before an MCP node sends it). At the SDK level, tool calls flagged as needing approval pause the run and surface as a pending interruption, then resume from saved state once the developer approves or rejects it. There's no built-in approver-notification channel (no native email/Slack alert); the surrounding app has to present the pending approval itself, though the resume mechanism is native.
Generative media
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: Image Generator V2, opens in a new tab)Yes: dedicated image (3 provider families incl. OpenAI, Gemini, Fal.ai proxy), video (5 provider families incl. Runway, Veo, Luma, Hailuo, Fal.ai proxy), text-to-speech (7 providers), and speech-to-text (5 providers) blocks
OpenAI AgentKit
Image generation only, via tool call (source: Agent Builder: Node reference, opens in a new tab)Image generation only, via tool call; no built-in video or audio (TTS/STT) generation node. Agent Builder's node palette (Start, Agent, Note, File search, Guardrails, MCP, If/else, While, Human approval, Transform, Set state) has no dedicated image/video/audio node. Agents can invoke OpenAI's separate image generation tool (GPT Image models) as a tool call. Audio (Whisper transcription/TTS) and video (Sora) are separate OpenAI API products, not surfaced as canvas nodes. No third-party media-gen providers are wired in as nodes.
Dynamic tool use
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: agent tool resolution (pre-wired only), opens in a new tab)No: an Agent block calls tools the workflow author explicitly added to it at build time, rather than browsing and picking from a broader pool (e.g. an entire MCP server catalog) at inference time. Runtime MCP "discovery" exists to resolve/refresh the schema of an already-configured tool. The model does not browse or choose from the server's full tool list.
OpenAI AgentKit
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented in available vendor sources.
Automatic model fallback
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: executeProviderRequest (no retry/fallback), opens in a new tab)No: a failed or rate-limited LLM call is retried using Sim's own hosted API keys for the same model, rather than automatically switching to a different model or provider. A "fallback" comment in the provider layer refers to rotating among Sim's own hosted API keys for the same model, not switching models.
OpenAI AgentKit
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented in available vendor sources.
Agent skills
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Agent skills, opens in a new tab)Yes: named, reusable "Agent Skills" (built on the open Agent Skills / SKILL.md format) that agents load on demand via progressive disclosure, editable in-app or imported from a SKILL.md file or GitHub URL. Only the skill name and description sit in the agent's system prompt (~50-100 tokens each); the full instructions load into context only when the agent calls load_skill.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Prompt engineering | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder/AgentKit has no dedicated feature for defining a reusable, named prompt or knowledge snippet that multiple agents can share by reference. A distinct 'Agent Skills' concept exists only in the unrelated Codex product line, not in AgentKit.. OpenAI recommends migrating reusable prompts to code-managed, versioned helper files instead, which is the opposite direction of a built-in skills feature.
Native chat deployment
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Chat Deployment, opens in a new tab)Yes: a workflow can be deployed as a public, shareable Chat interface with selectable auth (public, password, email OTP, or SSO), in addition to API and MCP deployment targets
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: ChatKit | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)Yes: ChatKit is a native toolkit for embedding a publicly deployable, customizable chat-based agent surface (web widget) backed by a published Agent Builder workflow ID or the Agents SDK, distinct from just a form/API/webhook target.. ChatKit remains available even as Agent Builder itself is being wound down.
Parallel execution
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Parallel block, opens in a new tab)Yes: a native Parallel block fans a run out into concurrent branches (fixed count or one per list item) and joins their results back into the workflow automatically. Contained blocks run concurrently instead of sequentially, either a fixed number of times or once per item in a list/collection, and each branch's output aggregates for downstream blocks.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agent Builder: Node reference, opens in a new tab)No dedicated node in the visual Agent Builder canvas. Its node palette (Start, Agent, Note, File search, Guardrails, MCP, If/else, While, Human approval, Transform, Set state) has no fan-out/fan-in or 'parallel branches' node; If/else and While are the only branching/looping constructs, and both execute sequentially. Concurrent multi-agent execution requires writing code against the separate Agents SDK (e.g. Python asyncio to run agents in parallel and merge results), not the no-code builder.. OpenAI developer community threads on Agent Builder confirm the canvas lacks a fan-out block and point developers to the Agents SDK for true concurrent branch execution.
Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: A2A integration, opens in a new tab)Yes: a dedicated A2A block sends messages to, tracks and cancels tasks on, and discovers the capabilities of any Agent2Agent (A2A)-compliant external agent via its Agent Card
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Introducing AgentKit (via search excerpt), opens in a new tab)No: not documented as supported by AgentKit or the Agents SDK. No OpenAI documentation, changelog, or product page for AgentKit, Agent Builder, or the Agents SDK describes support for the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol or Agent Cards. A2A is an open standard originated by Google and now under the Linux Foundation; OpenAI's own interoperability story is built around MCP (tool-calling) rather than A2A peer-to-peer agent discovery.
Loop / iteration block
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Loop block, opens in a new tab)Yes: a Loop container block runs the blocks inside it repeatedly (For a fixed count, ForEach over a collection, While a condition holds, or Do-While), running iterations one after another; concurrent fan-out is a separate Parallel block
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Node reference | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)Yes: Agent Builder has a dedicated 'While' logic node that loops on a custom Common Expression Language (CEL) condition, re-running the connected steps sequentially each pass until the condition is false.. The While node is condition-based rather than an explicit for-each-over-a-list container: iterating over a list means writing a CEL expression that checks an index or remaining-items condition against a Set-state variable, and incrementing that variable each pass, rather than dropping in a purpose-built for-each block. Iterations run one after another (sequential), matching the node palette's lack of any fan-out/parallel node.

Integrations

Sim publishes integration and trigger counts for its first-party automation catalog, while OpenAI combines a smaller documented connector set with access to external MCP servers, which are third-party endpoints OpenAI does not review.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Integrations
Sim
270+ integrations (5,600+ actions) (source: Sim integration catalog, opens in a new tab)270+ integrations (apps and services) exposing 5,600+ actions and 530+ triggers, plus MCP and API blocks for any other HTTP API. An integration is one app or service, the same unit other platforms count; actions are the individual operations an agent can call on it.
OpenAI AgentKit
No published total connector count (source: Introducing AgentKit (via search excerpt), opens in a new tab)Unknown exact count. OpenAI names specific pre-built connectors (Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams) plus support for arbitrary third-party MCP servers, but publishes no total integration/connector count comparable to a competitor's marketed number.
Trigger types
Sim
Webhook, cron, chat, REST API, 67 app triggers, plus a diff-aware Tables trigger (source: Sim Docs: Triggers overview, opens in a new tab)Webhook, schedule/cron, chat, REST API, and event-based triggers for 67 apps (Slack, Gmail, GitHub, Stripe, etc.), plus a native row-level trigger on Sim Tables that fires on insert/update with an optional column watch-list and emits a before/after diff
OpenAI AgentKit
Not comprehensively documentedUnknown / not comprehensively documented. Primary sources describe workflow execution via API calls and ChatKit chat interfaces; no vendor page enumerates trigger types (webhook, schedule, app-event) the way a workflow-automation product typically does.
Custom code steps
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Function block, opens in a new tab)Yes: code-execution block for custom logic
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI API: Agents SDK guide, opens in a new tab)Yes, effectively. The Agents SDK is itself Python/TypeScript code, and Agent Builder workflows can call custom tools/functions. Because the long-term supported path is the code-first Agents SDK (Python and TypeScript), custom code isn't a step type bolted onto a no-code canvas. It's the native building block itself.
Configurable code sandboxes
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Function block - Sandboxes, opens in a new tab)Yes: named sandboxes a workspace maintains and a Function block selects, each declaring a language, its pip or npm dependencies, optional Debian/APT system packages, and optional managed CLI tools from a catalog grouped by cloud, Kubernetes, infrastructure, deployment, data and storage, and security tools; on sim.ai they require an active Max or Enterprise plan. Only workspace admins can create or edit sandboxes, in Settings → Sandboxes. On sim.ai each specification is prebuilt into a reusable image so runs pay no install cost; a self-hosted deployment using Daytona installs the dependencies, system packages, and managed CLI tools inside the sandbox at the start of every run instead, and prebuilt images require E2B. Two sandboxes with the same language, dependency list, system packages, and managed CLI tools share one build. Every managed CLI entry uses a pinned, integrity-checked vendor artifact. Self-hosted deployments turn sandboxes on with SANDBOXES_ENABLED, and additionally need a remote execution provider and a dedicated Function base image configured. With no sandbox selected, remote code runs on the dedicated Function base; import-free JavaScript stays in the local isolated runtime and ignores the sandbox selection either way.
OpenAI AgentKit
Agents SDK sandbox image only; Code Interpreter is fixed (source: Sandbox agents | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)Partial: configurable only on the code-first path. The Agents SDK's sandbox agents let you name the container image the agent's shell and code run in (the documented Docker example passes image: 'node:22-bookworm-slim' to DockerSandboxClient), so third-party packages, OS packages, and CLI binaries come from an image you build and control. The hosted Code Interpreter tool is the opposite: a fixed OpenAI-managed container whose only user-adjustable setting is the memory tier (1g default, 4g, 16g, 64g), with no documented way to declare pip/npm or system packages.. Sandbox execution runs on infrastructure you supply, not OpenAI's: the documented clients are UnixLocalSandboxClient (macOS/Linux) and DockerSandboxClient for local execution, plus hosted providers via BlaxelSandboxClient, CloudflareSandboxClient, DaytonaSandboxClient, E2BSandboxClient, ModalSandboxClient, RunloopSandboxClient, and VercelSandboxClient. The visual Agent Builder canvas is unaffected either way: its node palette (Start, Agent, Note, File search, Guardrails, MCP, If/else, While, Human approval, Transform, Set state) has no code node, so a no-code builder's only code-execution surface is the fixed Code Interpreter container, which also discards all its data 20 minutes after last use.
API publishing
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: API Reference - Getting Started, opens in a new tab)Yes: a public REST API (mostly under /api/, with /api/v1 reserved for logs and audit-log endpoints) supporting API-triggered workflow execution and deployment rollback. The API reference does not document SSE streaming, a resumable event buffer, a dedicated API-trigger block, or a chat-deployment surface as part of the REST API itself.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI API: Agents SDK guide, opens in a new tab)Yes: agents/workflows are consumed via the OpenAI API and can be embedded via ChatKit; Agent Builder itself is not a customer-facing REST API generator. Agents built with the Agents SDK run as regular application code that developers expose via their own APIs; ChatKit provides an embeddable chat surface rather than an auto-generated REST endpoint for a visual workflow.
SDKs & extensibility
Sim
Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, plus MCP, code block, and A2A protocol (source: Sim Docs: Python SDK, opens in a new tab)Official client SDKs exist for Python (simstudio-sdk, pip install simstudio-sdk) and TypeScript/JavaScript (simstudio-ts-sdk, npm install simstudio-ts-sdk), both wrapping the REST API (x-api-key header) with methods like execute_workflow / executeWorkflow, retry-with-backoff, and usage-limit lookups. Extensibility is further extended by MCP (client + server), a sandboxed code-execution block (JS/Python), custom tools, and an Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol block for external agent interop
OpenAI AgentKit
Agents SDK, Apps SDK, and app directory (source: Agents SDK guide, opens in a new tab)Official Agents SDK (Python + TypeScript/JS); Apps SDK (MCP-based) for building integrations; ChatGPT Apps directory as a community marketplace. Agents SDK ships as open-source client libraries for Python (openai-agents-python) and TypeScript/JavaScript (openai-agents-js). It defaults to OpenAI's own Responses/Chat Completions APIs but is provider-agnostic in practice: built-in provider-integration points plus best-effort beta LiteLLM/Any-LLM adapters let it call 100+ non-OpenAI providers (this is a code-level capability, distinct from Agent Builder's OpenAI-only model selector). Custom integrations are built as MCP servers using the Apps SDK, an open standard on the Model Context Protocol; Agent Builder's MCP node connects to any third-party MCP server. A Connector Registry centralizes admin-managed connectors (Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, Teams) plus third-party MCPs. Community apps go through a dashboard-based submission and review flow and, once approved, are listed in the ChatGPT Apps directory.
Publish as MCP server
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: MCP Deployment, opens in a new tab)Yes: any deployed workflow can be published as a tool on an MCP server (private, API-key protected, or public/no-auth), with ready-to-paste client config generated for Codex, Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and VS Code
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: 8 best MCP servers to build production-ready agents in OpenAI Agent Builder, opens in a new tab)No: publicly available evidence only shows AgentKit/Agent Builder consuming external MCP servers as tools (adding an MCP button and pointing it at OpenAI's or third-party MCP servers). There is no documented feature to publish a deployed Agent Builder workflow itself as a callable MCP server for external AI tools to consume.. A separate OpenAI product, the Apps SDK, discusses exposing an MCP app as a server, but that is not the same as publishing an Agent Builder workflow as an MCP server.

Observability & durability

Both products provide run tracing, but their operational models differ. Sim includes visual workflow alerts and error branches, while several OpenAI retry, checkpoint, and recovery capabilities require developers to configure the Agents SDK in code.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Tracing & observability
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: TraceSpan tree builder, opens in a new tab)Yes: execution logs include a per-block/per-span trace view (duration, cost, token counts, and latency stats like TTFT/TPS) with expandable nested iteration groups, plus a "View Snapshot" frozen copy of the workflow structure and block states at run time for debugging. This trace view is built directly into Sim rather than a raw export browsable in an external tool like Jaeger, and does not expose aggregate latency-percentile charts (p50/p95/p99). The run snapshot serves as a log-detail/debugging artifact rather than a resumable mid-run checkpoint.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agents SDK: Integrations and observability, opens in a new tab)Yes: per-run tracing with spans (model calls, tool calls, handoffs, guardrails, custom spans) in a customer-facing Traces dashboard; no dedicated metrics dashboard (latency percentiles/error rates) documented. Tracing is on by default in the Agents SDK. Every run produces a structured trace with an ID, an optional group ID, and metadata tags, viewable in the Traces dashboard (Logs > Traces) for debugging and, via trace grading/agent evals, benchmarking. There's no aggregate metrics dashboard surfacing latency percentiles or error-rate trends across runs: official docs cover single-run trace inspection plus eval-based benchmarking, not a fleet-wide metrics view.
Durability & retries
Sim
Tool-call retries (up to 10x); single-attempt job orchestration (source: Sim codebase: ToolRetryConfig (exponential backoff), opens in a new tab)Individual tool/API calls have configurable exponential-backoff retry (up to 10 attempts). The background job-orchestration layer itself retries only once by design. Durability instead comes from consecutive-failure tracking on schedules and the human-in-the-loop snapshot pause/resume mechanism. Sim does not offer guaranteed-once-only block execution, a failed-run holding queue for manual recovery, or a "replay a past execution with its original inputs" feature. The per-execution debugging snapshot serves as a log-detail artifact rather than a resumable mid-run checkpoint.
OpenAI AgentKit
Opt-in retries and checkpoint/resume (source: OpenAI Agents SDK: Running agents, opens in a new tab)Opt-in retries, SDK-level checkpointing/resume of run state, but no one-click replay of a past production execution with original inputs from the Agent Builder UI. The Agents SDK supports configurable automatic retries on transient failures (network errors, rate limits, server errors), off by default and requiring an explicit retry policy. The SDK also records each run's execution state so it can resume after an interruption (e.g., pending tool approval) or a process restart, giving checkpoint/resume for fault tolerance. This is a developer-invoked mechanism in code, not a dashboard 'replay this failed execution' button, and there's no UI-driven replay-with-original-inputs feature for past runs.
Failure alerting
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Sim Workspace Events trigger, opens in a new tab)Yes: a sim_workspace_event trigger fires on run success/failure, deployments, and cost/latency spikes, wired to any notification block (Slack, email, webhook) for real-time alerting
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Agents SDK: Integrations and observability, opens in a new tab)No proactive alerting for failed runs or cost/latency thresholds. Traces are pull-based, inspected manually. The Traces dashboard records model calls, tool calls, handoffs, guardrails, and custom spans per run for after-the-fact debugging, but it's a manual inspection tool you open to debug a specific run. There's no built-in push notification (email/Slack/webhook) when a run fails or crosses a cost/latency threshold. Generic OpenAI platform webhooks exist for events like batch or fine-tuning job completion, but these aren't documented as covering Agent Builder/Agents SDK run failures or thresholds.
Data drains
Sim
(source: Sim Docs: Data Drains, opens in a new tab)Yes: Enterprise orgs can continuously export workflow logs, job logs, or audit logs on a schedule to a customer-owned S3 bucket, GCS bucket, Azure Blob container, BigQuery table, Snowflake table, Datadog logs intake, or an HTTPS webhook. Each drain exports exactly one data source; multiple drains are created to export multiple sources. Viewing drain config/run history is restricted to org owners/admins.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Compliance Platform for Enterprise and Edu Customers, opens in a new tab)Yes: OpenAI's Compliance Logs Platform and Admin/Audit Logs API continuously export execution, audit, and usage data as immutable, time-windowed JSONL log files, with 13 pre-built turnkey integrations to eDiscovery, DLP, and SIEM vendors (e.g. CrowdStrike, GlobalRelay), beyond just viewing logs in-product.. This is an org-wide ChatGPT Enterprise/API Platform compliance feature, not something scoped specifically to Agent Builder workflow runs.
Async execution
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: async execution handler, opens in a new tab)Yes: a workflow can be triggered in fire-and-forget async mode, returning HTTP 202 with an execution ID immediately, then polled through the canonical execution resource across queued/running/terminal states. Async runs are tracked by execution ID through the same execution status endpoint used for durable logs rather than a separate queue-job resource.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI: Background mode guide, opens in a new tab)Yes: OpenAI's platform supports a background mode that flags a Responses API call to run asynchronously instead of blocking. The client immediately gets back a response ID marked "queued" and polls a status endpoint until the run reaches a terminal state like completed or failed.. Background mode is a platform-level Responses API feature (used by Agents SDK/AgentKit flows), not unique to the Agent Builder canvas UI itself; an in-flight response can also be cancelled directly. Response data is retained only about 10 minutes for polling, and it is incompatible with Zero Data Retention projects.
Execution limits
Sim
5-50 min sync; async defaults to 90 min, Enterprise up to 7 days (source: Sim Docs: Concurrent Executions, opens in a new tab)Plan-gated: synchronous runs time out at 5 minutes on the free plan and 50 minutes on paid plans; async runs default to 90 minutes, while Enterprise policy can be configured up to 7 days; concurrency ranges from 10 to 1,000 executions per billing account depending on plan. A direct async API request can shorten the account policy for that request, but cannot extend it. Concurrency limits are published in the platform cost docs, where the Enterprise limit is 1,000 by default and customizable. A run that exceeds its time limit is terminated and marked failed with a timeout error.
OpenAI AgentKit
No published AgentKit-specific run/concurrency caps (source: OpenAI: Rate limits guide (usage tiers, RPM/TPM/RPD/TPD, vector store 300 rpm), opens in a new tab)Unknown: OpenAI does not publish a fixed maximum duration for a single Agent Builder workflow run or Agents SDK execution, nor a concurrency cap specific to AgentKit. The only concrete numbers found are general API usage-tier limits (requests and tokens per minute/day, scaling from a $100/month allowance at Tier 1 up to $200,000/month at Tier 5) and a 300-requests-per-minute cap per vector store for file ingestion endpoints.. Background mode responses are only retained about 10 minutes for polling, a practical window for checking back on a run, but not a documented hard execution timeout. The one concrete node-level timeout is the Agent Builder Approval node, which times out after 5 minutes and alerts a supervisor if unactioned. Actual RPM/TPM caps are account/model-specific and only visible in the OpenAI dashboard.
Partial-failure handling
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: error-output edge routing, opens in a new tab)Yes: any block can be wired to a dedicated error-output edge, so a failing step routes execution down an error-handling branch instead of always halting the entire run
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI: Agent Builder node reference (Guardrails, If/Else, Human Approval nodes), opens in a new tab)No: Agent Builder has no dedicated try/catch or fallback-path construct for a failing step. Error handling has to be built manually with a Guardrails node (a pass/fail checkpoint on a prior node's output) combined with If/Else logic nodes to branch on conditions. OpenAI's own guidance for a guardrail failure is to end the workflow or loop back to the previous step, not to continue the rest of the run on a separate error path.. Guardrails nodes and If/Else logic nodes can be composed to approximate conditional routing around a failure, and a Human Approval node can pause for intervention, but none of these work as an automatic "catch this failing step and keep the rest of the run going" mechanism the way a dedicated error-handling path would.
Unattended execution
Sim
(source: Sim codebase: trigger.dev background job backend, opens in a new tab)Yes: scheduled, webhook, and chat-triggered runs execute as background jobs on trigger.dev workers, entirely on Sim's servers. No client device needs to be open, awake, or connected for a run to fire or complete; closing the browser tab or shutting down a laptop has no effect on a scheduled or triggered workflow.
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Node reference | OpenAI API, opens in a new tab)No native scheduler ships with AgentKit; a scheduled or triggered run only executes with zero dependency on a client device if the developer deploys their own Agents SDK code on always-on server or serverless infrastructure themselves. Agent Builder's own trigger surface covers API calls and ChatKit chat sessions, not a built-in cron/schedule trigger. Neither Agent Builder's node reference nor its documented trigger types include a schedule/cron trigger; time-based, run-without-a-human execution is described for a separate product, ChatGPT Workspace Agents, not AgentKit. Because Agents SDK code is ordinary Python/TypeScript, whether a run survives a closed laptop or a disconnected client depends entirely on where the developer hosts that code (e.g. AWS Lambda, a container, or a cron-triggered server process) and whether they add a third-party durability layer, such as Temporal, Dapr, Restate, or DBOS, for crash recovery and long-running execution. There is no first-party, always-on worker fleet or scheduler bundled with AgentKit itself.

Support

OpenAI documents 24/7 support and service commitments for qualifying enterprise offerings, while Sim lists dedicated Enterprise support without publishing response-time or uptime terms. Buyers who require contractual guarantees should confirm the exact coverage with each vendor.

CompareSim vs OpenAI AgentKit
Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
Support channels
Sim
Community support plus Enterprise 'Dedicated Support' (source: Sim Pricing Page, opens in a new tab)Community (open source, GitHub) plus an unquantified "Dedicated Support" flag on the Enterprise plan. Enterprise and pricing pages do not include CSM, onboarding/enablement, or professional-services details beyond a plan-comparison-table "Dedicated Support" flag.
OpenAI AgentKit
Community forum plus 24/7 enterprise support (source: OpenAI Help Center: How can I contact support?, opens in a new tab)Community forum (community.openai.com), help center articles, and enterprise sales-led support; ChatGPT Enterprise includes 24/7 support. OpenAI's Help Center documents standard support channels, and ChatGPT Enterprise plans include 24/7 support with SLAs.
SLA
Sim
(source: Sim Pricing Page, opens in a new tab)Yes: the Enterprise plan includes a "Dedicated Support" feature per the pricing plan-comparison table; no SLA terminology, response-time, or uptime figures are published on the enterprise or pricing pages
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: Scale Tier for API Customers, opens in a new tab)Yes, for enterprise/Scale Tier customers. E.g., 99.9% uptime SLA on Scale Tier, and priority-processing SLAs with service credits. Scale Tier traffic offers a 99.9% uptime SLA with prioritized compute (available to Enterprise customers); Priority Processing customers on enterprise agreements can receive service credits if SLAs are missed. Exact SLA terms require contacting OpenAI sales.
Community
Sim
100,000+ builders (source: Sim Landing Page, opens in a new tab)Over 100,000 builders use Sim
OpenAI AgentKit
27,500+ GitHub stars on Agents SDK (source: GitHub API: openai/openai-agents-python, opens in a new tab)Over 27,500 GitHub stars on the companion open-source Agents SDK (openai/openai-agents-python) as of 2026-07-02. A direct GitHub API check confirms roughly 27,600 stargazers for openai/openai-agents-python. This measures the Agents SDK's community, not Agent Builder/AgentKit specifically, since AgentKit's GUI components are closed-source SaaS.
Academy / training
Sim
(source: Sim Documentation, opens in a new tab)No: Sim provides product documentation and API reference guides without a dedicated academy or certification program
OpenAI AgentKit
(source: OpenAI Academy, opens in a new tab)Yes: OpenAI Academy offers structured, free self-paced courses (AI Foundations, Applied AI Foundations, Agents and Workflows) plus official OpenAI Certifications (e.g. the AI Foundations certification backed by ETS and Credly), going beyond ad hoc docs or blog content.. Academy and Certifications are separate programs; course-completion certificates are not the same as formal OpenAI Certifications. This is a company-wide OpenAI offering, not specific to Agent Builder/AgentKit.

Sim standout features

AI Copilot / Chat agent-building surface (source: Sim Docs: Chat (build and edit workflows), opens in a new tab)

Chat builds and manages work across the workspace; in-editor Copilot edits a single workflow.

A workspace-wide natural-language surface (Chat) that can build workflows, manage data, and take actions across integrations, plus an in-editor Copilot scoped to building and editing a single workflow directly.

Hybrid semantic + keyword knowledge base (source: Sim codebase: KB schema + file-parsers, opens in a new tab)

Combines vector and full-text search with configurable chunking across 15 file types.

Built-in RAG with pgvector embeddings and a generated tsvector column for combined vector + full-text search, plus a token-based chunker with configurable chunk size/overlap and 15 supported file types (csv, doc, docx, htm, html, json, jsonl, md, pdf, pptx, txt, xls, xlsx, yaml, yml).

Native MCP client and server (source: Sim Docs: MCP Deployment, opens in a new tab)

Call external MCP servers as tools, or expose Sim workflows as an MCP server.

A dedicated MCP block lets any workflow call external MCP servers as a tool, and a serve/workflow-servers API surface lets Sim expose its own workflows as MCP servers.

Fork a workspace into dev, qa, and prod environments (source: Sim Docs: Workspace Forks, opens in a new tab)

Fork, diff, and promote environments with mandatory credential remapping.

Fork a whole workspace into a dev/qa/prod-style child environment, preview a diff, and promote changes bidirectionally. Credential and env-var remapping is required on every promote, so secrets never cross environments silently.

Human-in-the-loop approvals with durable resume (source: Sim Docs: Human in the Loop Block, opens in a new tab)

Pause a run for human approval and resume later via a durable snapshot link.

A dedicated block pauses a run and waits for a human-submitted approval form, backed by persisted execution snapshots so the run can resume later via a link, even after a server restart.

Self-hostable under Apache 2.0 (source: Sim Docs: Introduction (FAQ - Open Source License), opens in a new tab)

Apache 2.0 core with Docker Compose and Helm deployment options.

Open-source core under Apache 2.0, with Docker Compose files and a Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment, alongside a managed cloud-hosted option. Enterprise features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs, access control, workspace forks) are separately licensed and require an Enterprise subscription for production use.

Live multiplayer canvas editing (source: Sim codebase: realtime presence handler, opens in a new tab)

Real-time cursors, selections, and synced edits on the same canvas.

Real-time cursors, selection broadcasting, and synced concurrent edits over a dedicated realtime backend, so a team can build the same workflow together at the same time.

Documented OpenAI AgentKit limitations

Agent Builder and Evals are being shut down (source: OpenAI Community: Deprecation notice - Agent Builder, opens in a new tab)

Visual builder and evals platform shut down November 30, 2026.

OpenAI announced in June 2026 that it is winding down Agent Builder (the visual no-code canvas) and the Evals platform. Evals goes read-only October 31, 2026, and both are fully unavailable November 30, 2026. The visual/no-code building experience central to AgentKit as originally announced is being discontinued in favor of the code-first Agents SDK or ChatGPT Workspace Agents.

No self-hosted managed backend after winddown (source: OpenAI Community: Deprecation notice - Agent Builder, opens in a new tab)

Self-hosting requires running ChatKit on your own infrastructure entirely.

Once Agent Builder's managed hosting is discontinued, the only supported ChatKit integration path requires developers to run ChatKit on their own infrastructure via the Python SDK connected to a custom agentic backend. There is no OpenAI-hosted no-code deployment option remaining.

Usage-based, per-token/per-call pricing with no published flat plan for AgentKit itself (source: OpenAI API Pricing, opens in a new tab)

No flat plan; costs scale with token and tool usage.

There is no dedicated AgentKit subscription tier. Costs are the sum of model tokens, Code Interpreter sessions ($0.03-$1.92 per session by memory tier), and File Search ($0.10/GB-day storage plus $2.50 per 1,000 tool calls), which makes cost forecasting harder than Sim's published pricing, where a Pro seat is a flat $25/user/month with a monthly credit allowance included, rather than open-ended per-token and per-call metering.

Bottom line

Choose Sim if you want an open-source, self-hostable AI workspace that treats AI agents as first-class citizens: native multi-LLM support, real-time multiplayer editing, human-in-the-loop approvals, and, on the Enterprise plan, environment promotion (dev/qa/prod) and governance (SSO, credential-level permissions, audit logs) built in rather than bolted on.

Choose OpenAI AgentKit if you specifically need an official, open-source Agents SDK wired natively to its own models: The Agents SDK, openai-agents-python, is open source under the MIT license with over 27,500 GitHub stars and natively wired into OpenAI's own model lineup. It's the path OpenAI is steering AgentKit users toward as Agent Builder and Evals wind down, and a team fully committed to an all-OpenAI, code-first stack gets that directly.

Related reading

More comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Sim is an open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents visually, conversationally, or with code. OpenAI AgentKit bundled a visual Agent Builder, ChatKit embeddable chat UI, Connector Registry, Guardrails, and Evals for building agentic workflows on OpenAI's models. But OpenAI is winding down Agent Builder and Evals, with full shutdown November 30, 2026, in favor of the code-first Agents SDK or ChatGPT Workspace Agents. Teams considering a switch typically weigh licensing (Sim's core is Apache 2.0 and self-hostable), pricing model, and how AI-native the platform's agent-building experience is.

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