Knowledge Bank · AI & GenAI

LangGraph vs LangChain: What Is the Difference?

By Karthick Selvam · Published

LangGraph is a library from the LangChain team for building stateful, multi-step agent workflows as graphs.

LangChain

Focuses on components and simple chains: prompts, models, retrievers, tools and their integrations.

LangGraph

Models an application as a graph of nodes (steps) and edges (transitions) with shared state. It supports loops, branching, persistence, human-in-the-loop approval and multi-agent designs.

When to use which

Use LangChain components for straightforward pipelines like RAG. Use LangGraph when you need controllable agent behaviour with cycles, retries and checkpoints.

Together

They are often used together: LangChain components inside LangGraph nodes.

Frequently asked questions

Is LangGraph only for agents?

It is designed for agentic and stateful workflows, but any multi-step process with branching can benefit.

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