AutoGen
Microsoft's framework for multi-agent conversations
AutoGen by Microsoft Research enables multi-agent conversations where AI agents discuss, debate, and collaborate to solve complex tasks. Version 0.4 introduced an event-driven architecture for production use.
Editor rating is our overall editorial judgment of the tool, out of 5. It is not a test score and not a user-review average. Ratings have not been re-scored since the tool was listed here. The reasons are in Best for and Pros & cons below.
Requires some technical comfort with API keys, command line, or coding. If you're new to AI, start with a chat-based tool first.
Best for
Pros & cons
✓ Pros
✗ What this won't do
Use cases
Multi-agent problem solving
Code generation with review agents
Complex data analysis pipelines
Research paper synthesis
Know its status
Microsoft has put AutoGen in maintenance mode and points new projects to Microsoft Agent Framework, with a migration guide. The steps below still follow AutoGen's own quickstart.
Install AutoGen
You need Python 3.10 or newer. Run pip install -U "autogen-agentchat" "autogen-ext[openai,azure]" and set your OPENAI_API_KEY.
Build a weather agent
Create an AssistantAgent named weather_agent with a gpt-4o model client and a get_weather tool. Ask it "What is the weather in New York?" with run_stream.
Read the streamed steps
The console shows the tool call, its result and then the final answer: "The current weather in New York is 73 degrees and sunny." Seeing each step helps you spot where a run goes wrong.
Compare alternatives
| Tool | Category | Editor rating | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| AutoGen (current) | Agent Framework | 4.4 | Free (open-source) |
| CrewAI | Agent Framework | 4.5 | Free (open-source) / Enterprise pricing |
| LangGraph | Agent Framework | 4.5 | Free (open-source) |
| Agno | Agent Framework | 4.4 | Free (open-source) |