Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is AWS's production platform for AI agents. Per AWS, it is "the platform for production AI agents. Any framework. Any model. Secure at scale." You bring the agent (built in LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, Strands SDK, or your own framework). AWS brings the runtime, security, observability, and infrastructure underneath.
AgentCore is best understood as the infrastructure layer between your agent code and the rest of AWS. You write the agent using any framework. AgentCore wraps it in a runtime that handles authentication, access policies, observability, and sandboxing. The same code that runs on your laptop deploys to production with security built into the platform.
The framework flexibility matters. Most cloud agent platforms force you into the vendor's opinions. AgentCore explicitly supports LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, Strands SDK, and custom frameworks. You can swap frameworks without re-architecting your infrastructure.
AWS positions AgentCore for the moment when your agent needs to call multiple things in the same turn: an MCP server, a knowledge base, an internal API, and a Lambda function. Wiring all of that with proper access controls is the work AgentCore takes off your plate. Security controls are enforced at the platform layer with access policies verified by automated reasoning.
AgentCore is usage-based and billed through AWS. You pay for runtime usage plus the model inference costs (Anthropic Claude, Amazon Nova, etc.) plus any AWS services your agent calls. Specific tier pricing changes over time; check the AWS Bedrock AgentCore page for current rates.
| Axis | AgentCore (AWS) | Vertex Agent Engine (Google) | Azure AI Foundry (Microsoft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud | AWS | Google Cloud | Azure |
| Framework flexibility | LangChain, OpenAI, Claude, Strands, custom | ADK, LangChain, custom | Microsoft Agent Framework, LangChain |
| Model options | Anthropic, Amazon Nova, Mistral, others | Gemini, third-party via Vertex | OpenAI, Anthropic, others via Foundry |
| Security model | Verified by automated reasoning | Google Cloud IAM | Microsoft Entra + Defender |
| Best for | AWS-native enterprises | Google Cloud + Gemini stacks | Microsoft 365 + Azure stacks |
Pros:
Cons:
For SellerShorts tool builders targeting enterprise Amazon brands, AgentCore is one of the cleanest production paths in 2026. Many large Amazon sellers already run on AWS, and AgentCore lets your agent inherit their security posture instead of rebuilding it. For smaller builders selling to individual sellers, the AWS overhead is more than you need. Start with a simpler framework, move to AgentCore when enterprise buyers ask for SOC 2 evidence.
Available through AWS. You need an AWS account to start.
Building agents for Amazon sellers? See the Amazon AI hub.
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is AWS's platform for building and deploying production AI agents. Per AWS, it is 'The platform for production AI agents. Any framework. Any model. Secure at scale.' It works with LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, Strands SDK, or your own framework.
AgentCore is the newer, broader platform. Earlier 'Bedrock Agents' referred to a more constrained, AWS-managed agent feature. AgentCore lets you bring your own framework and run it on AWS infrastructure with built-in security, observability, and access control. AWS documentation in 2026 uses 'AgentCore' as the umbrella term.
Per the AWS product page: framework flexibility (LangChain, OpenAI SDK, Claude SDK, Strands, or custom), connection and control (authentication and access across systems), observability (debugging and tracing), and security infrastructure built on AWS with access policies verified by automated reasoning.
AgentCore replaces the hours you would spend wiring up secrets management, access policies, observability, and sandboxing. For prototypes, your own EC2 or Lambda is fine. For production agents in regulated environments, AgentCore saves the security review cycle.