WorkOS vs OpenAI API
The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS
vs. Frontier models: GPT-5, o-series reasoning, image, audio, embeddings
Pricing tiers
WorkOS
AuthKit Free
First 1M MAUs free. Unlimited organizations, user management, social OAuth, passwordless.
Free
AuthKit Scale
Per 1M additional MAUs.
$2500/mo
Enterprise / Annual Credits
Custom with 99.99% SLA, guided migration, dedicated support.
Custom
OpenAI API
Free Tier (Trial)
$5 free credit for new accounts. Rate-limited.
Free
Pay-as-you-go
No monthly min. Per-token pricing by model.
$0 base (usage-based)
Usage Tiers (1-5)
Automatic tier promotion based on cumulative spend. Higher tiers = higher rate limits + new model access.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Custom. Priority access, SLA, dedicated capacity.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing authkit-free on WorkOS vs free-tier on OpenAI API.
| Metric | WorkOS | OpenAI API |
|---|---|---|
| mau included | 1000000 users/month | — |
| organizations | unlimited orgs | — |
| staging environments | free envs | — |
Features
WorkOS · 13 features
- Audit Logs — Standardized audit log pipeline with streaming to SIEMs (Splunk, Datadog, Sumo L…
- AuthKit — Complete drop-in user management UI + hosted auth flows. Built on top of WorkOS.
- Directory Sync — SCIM-based user provisioning/deprovisioning from Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspac…
- FGA (WorkOS) — Fine-grained authorization based on Google Zanzibar / OpenFGA.
- Magic Auth — Passwordless email codes + links. Good alternative to password auth for B2B.
- Multi-Factor Auth — TOTP + SMS MFA enrollment and verification APIs.
- Organizations — Multi-tenant B2B primitive. Attach SSO/Directory/Audit to specific customer orgs…
- Passkeys — WebAuthn passkeys as a first-class factor.
- Radar — Fraud protection: device fingerprinting + risk scoring at signup and login.
- Single Sign-On — Plug-and-play SAML 2.0 + OIDC SSO with 30+ identity providers pre-mapped.
- User Management — REST API + webhooks for user CRUD, email verification, sessions, MFA, metadata.
- Vault — Secret storage for tokens + per-tenant credentials.
- Widgets — Embeddable admin portals (SSO setup, directory mapping) that your customers self…
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.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | WorkOS | OpenAI API |
|---|---|---|
| SDK | workos-go, @workos-inc/authkit-nextjs, workos-java, workos-node, workos-php, workos-python, workos-ruby | openai-dotnet, openai-go, openai-node, openai-python |
| REST | WorkOS REST API | OpenAI REST API |
| MCP | — | OpenAI MCP |
| OTHER | Webhooks | Realtime API (WebSocket) |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to WorkOS and OpenAI API may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.