Claude Agent SDK vs LangGraph

Pick two tools from the same category to compare side-by-side.

	Claude Agent SDK Anthropic's official SDK for building production agents on Claude.	LangGraph Graph-based agent orchestration framework from the LangChain team.
Category	framework	framework
Vendor type	commercial	hybrid
Pricing	free	freemium
Strengths	+ First-class Claude features (prompt caching, extended thinking) + Designed around production agent patterns + Compatible with the Skills standard	+ Explicit, debuggable graph model for complex flows + Mature Python ecosystem + Tight LangSmith integration
Tradeoffs	− Claude-only (cross-provider needs a gateway like Portkey)	− Steeper learning curve than linear agent SDKs − LangChain abstractions are opinionated
Used in stacks	9	5