Convex vs OpenAI API

Convex

OpenAI API

Convex · 18 features

• Actions — Non-deterministic functions for external I/O (fetch, AI APIs, email). Cannot rea…
• Authentication — Convex Auth (built-in) or BYO provider (Clerk, Auth0, Kinde, WorkOS). ID tokens …
• Convex Agents — AI agent framework with durable memory, threads, tool use. Works with OpenAI / A…
• Convex Auth — First-party auth library: passwords, magic links, OAuth, phone — stored in your …
• Convex Components — Reusable backend modules (rate limiter, workflow, aggregate, action-retrier, etc…
• Cron Jobs — Recurring schedules defined in convex/crons.ts. UTC, cron-style patterns.
• Durable Workflows — Long-running multi-step workflows with retries and at-least-once guarantees.
• Exception Reporting — Auto-capture errors to Sentry, Axiom, Datadog.
• File Storage — Upload/download via storage API. Returns storage IDs referenced in documents.
• Full-Text Search — BM25 search index on table fields. withSearchIndex query helper.
• HTTP Actions — Expose public HTTP endpoints for webhooks, OAuth callbacks, third-party integrat…
• Log Streams — Stream function logs to Axiom, Datadog, Sentry. Pro+.
• Mutations — Transactional write functions. All reads + writes in one mutation are ACID; conf…
• Preview Deployments — Every Git branch gets its own isolated deployment. Integrates with Vercel/Netlif…
• Queries — Deterministic read-only TS functions. Automatically cached and re-run when under…
• Real-Time Subscriptions — useQuery auto-subscribes; server invalidates when data a query read changes. No …
• Scheduler — schedule.after / schedule.at — enqueue functions to run later. Durable, survives…
• Vector Search — Native vector index on tables. withIndex + filter fields. Up to 4096 dims.

OpenAI API · 12 features

• Assistants API — Stateful assistants with tools, threads, file search.
• Batch API — 50% discount for async processing within 24h.
• Chat Completions API — Classic /v1/chat/completions endpoint.
• Files API — Upload docs for retrieval, fine-tuning, batch.
• Fine-Tuning — Supervised + DPO fine-tuning for GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o-mini.
• Function Calling — JSON-schema tool calling; parallel calls supported.
• Moderation — Safety classifier API (free).
• Prompt Caching — Auto-cache repeated prefixes; 50% cheaper cached hits.
• Realtime API — WebSocket streaming voice + text with low latency.
• Responses API — Stateful conversational API.
• Structured Outputs — Enforced JSON schema compliance.
• Vision — Image input for GPT models.