The fastest AI agent framework? What we measured, and how
"Fastest AI agent framework" is a claim anyone can make, so here is ours with the numbers behind it. CriogenAI has the lowest framework overhead of the AI agent frameworks we measured, on every speed scenario, and the full method and raw results are public so you can rerun them.
The numbers#
Measured on one machine (AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, Windows 11, Python 3.13, 2026-10-21), with the same simulated model in every framework, so only the framework's own work is timed:
| What we measured | CriogenAI | LangGraph | CrewAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framework overhead per agent turn | 0.29 ms | 1.23 ms | 34 ms |
| 1,000 concurrent agent runs | 0.33 s | 2.85 s | 49.0 s |
| Packages installed | 1 | 42 | 138 |
| Install size | 17.9 MB | 42.9 MB | 742.7 MB |
| Time to import | 148 ms | 1.70 s | 9.30 s |
| Reliability tests passed by default | 5 of 5 | 2 | 4 |
That is about 4× less overhead per turn than LangGraph and over 100× less than CrewAI, and 8.6× faster on 1,000 concurrent runs. The benchmark lab shows every scenario, the exact versions and a kit to run it yourself.
Why it is faster#
The engine is written in Rust. Scheduling, state merging, validation and persistence run there, not in the interpreter. Python and TypeScript only run your tools and your logic. Tool calls of one turn run at the same time, and a step commits as a whole, so the engine does no extra round trips.
When speed matters, and when it does not#
With one agent and a real model, the model's time dominates: a call takes hundreds of milliseconds or seconds, and every framework is close. The difference shows where frameworks do real work:
- many agents or users at once (support desks, batch jobs, evaluations);
- many steps and many tool calls per task;
- workflows with parallel branches;
- serverless functions, where import time is paid on every cold start.
There, framework overhead becomes cost and latency, and a Rust engine pays off.
Speed without giving up safety#
Being fast is not useful if a run is lost on a crash or a tool runs twice. CriogenAI saves every step, resumes after a crash without repeating finished tool calls, stops for human approval before sensitive tools, and keeps an audit trail. These are part of the runtime, not add-ons you assemble yourself.
Try it#
pip install criogenai
npm install criogenaiStart with the quickstart, or read Introducing CriogenAI.