# LangGraph review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source framework for building controllable AI agents Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. LangGraph is a low-level orchestration library from LangChain for building agents as stateful graphs, with human-in-the-loop checks, persistent memory and token-by-token streaming. The library is MIT-licensed and free. Hosting the agents you build is sold separately through LangSmith's Agent Server, which needs a Plus or Enterprise plan. - **Category:** AI Agents - **Made by:** LangChain - **Website:** https://www.langchain.com/langgraph - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you want a visual builder, because the framework itself has none. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, LangGraph has a free plan, and paid plans start at $39 per seat / month, billed monthly. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** The LangGraph library is MIT-licensed and free. LangSmith Developer is $0 for 1 seat with 5k base traces a month. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | LangGraph (open source) | $0 | MIT-licensed library you run yourself; the vendor says it is free to use. | | LangSmith Developer | $0 per seat / month, then pay as you go | 1 seat, 5k base traces a month, community support. No Agent Server. | | LangSmith Plus | $39 per seat / month, billed monthly, then pay as you go | Unlimited seats, 10k base traces a month and 1 small serverless Agent Server included; extra servers and usage are billed in LSUs. | | LangSmith Enterprise | Custom | Cloud, hybrid or self-hosted deployment, custom SSO, RBAC, support SLA and custom seats. | Read from https://www.langchain.com/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with LangGraph before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **LangSmith for Startups** (Startups): Discounted rates and credits of up to $10,000 for VC-backed startups, by application. Source: https://www.langchain.com/pricing ## Key features - **Graph-based agent control:** Low-level primitives for single-agent, multi-agent and hierarchical control flows in one framework. - **Human-in-the-loop:** Approval and moderation checks can be added so a person can steer or approve agent actions. - **Persistent memory:** Built-in memory stores conversation history and keeps context across sessions. - **Streaming:** Native token-by-token streaming exposes the agent's reasoning and actions as they happen. - **Agent Server deployment:** LangSmith Agent Server hosts agents in the cloud, in a hybrid setup, or fully self-hosted, with cron scheduling, an Assistants API and Studio. ## Good for - Developers who want fine-grained control over agent logic - Teams already using LangChain and LangSmith for tracing and evals - Agents that need approvals, long-running state or memory ## Worth knowing - The library is code only; there is no visual builder in the framework itself. - Deploying on LangChain's infrastructure needs LangSmith Plus ($39 per seat / month) or Enterprise; the Developer plan has no Agent Server. - Beyond the included allowances, traces, Agent Server compute and sandboxes are metered in LangSmith units (1 LSU = $1). - Base traces are kept 14 days; 180-day extended traces cost extra. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. LangGraph is an MIT-licensed library for agent control flow, with human approval steps, memory and streaming. It is code only, and hosting on LangChain's servers needs LangSmith Plus at $39 a seat a month, with usage billed on top. - **Value for money: C.** The library is free, but deploying on LangChain's infrastructure needs LangSmith Plus at $39 a seat, above the category's middle of $25, with usage billed in LSUs. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Free outright: the MIT library has no cap, and LangSmith Developer is $0 for one seat with 5k traces a month. - **Features: B.** Single and multi-agent control, human approval, persistent memory, streaming and an Agent Server for deployment. The framework has no visual builder. - **Ease of use: D.** You write code and run it yourself, or deploy an Agent Server. We found no store rating. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** A code library with LangChain, LangSmith and MCP connections, plus hosted, hybrid or self-hosted deployment. No desktop or phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from LangGraph's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI agents - LangGraph's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 139 of the 178 other AI agents we grade, and level with 20. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 167 of 178) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $39 a month for each person, against a middle price of $25 for the category: 65 of the 98 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 29 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-agents ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace LangGraph you would be making an AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 139 of the 178 other AI agents we grade. It costs $468 a year. LangGraph is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with LangChain, LangSmith, MCP **Tags:** AI agents, Open source, Self-hostable, Workflow automation ## Alternatives - [CrewAI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/crewai): Multi-agent platform to build, run and govern AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/crewai-vs-langgraph) - [Pydantic AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pydantic-ai): Typed Python SDK for building AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/langgraph-vs-pydantic-ai) - [Mastra](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mastra): TypeScript framework for building and running AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/langgraph-vs-mastra) - [LlamaIndex](https://toolgpa.com/tools/llamaindex): Document parsing and extraction platform for AI agents. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/langgraph-vs-llamaindex) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://www.langchain.com/langgraph - https://www.langchain.com/pricing Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/langgraph Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).