OpenAI vs. WorkOS: Securing the AI Platform Layer vs. Securing Your Application

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OpenAI now supports AI capabilities used by a large portion of the Fortune 500—Canva, Block, PwC, Salesforce, and others. As the company expands its platform, it has begun introducing tools that strengthen platform-level security and help teams build safer AI systems.

With the recent release of Aardvark, an autonomous GPT-5–powered security researcher, and gpt-oss-safeguard, a pair of open-weight safety-reasoning models, OpenAI is broadening its investment in securing the AI layer itself.

But these tools solve a fundamentally different category of problem than WorkOS.

OpenAI secures access to the AI platform and helps ensure safe model behavior.

WorkOS secures access to your application and provides the enterprise-grade authentication your customers require.

Understanding that distinction is essential when building a full-stack, production AI system.

What OpenAI Provides

OpenAI’s security posture focuses on three areas: platform access controls, model-level safety, and enterprise compliance.

Aardvark is the company’s newest initiative—an autonomous security researcher powered by GPT-5 that can analyze code, detect vulnerabilities, and propose fixes. It operates as a specialized agent for secure software development workflows and is currently available in private beta for select partners.

gpt-oss-safeguard represents a different approach: two open-weight safety-reasoning models (120B and 20B parameters) released under Apache 2.0. They enable teams to enforce custom input/output safety policies, classify risky content, or build guardrails that must run inside their own infrastructure.

Beyond these, OpenAI provides strong platform access controls: project-scoped API keys, service accounts, granular roles, IP allowlisting, SAML SSO, MFA, and SCIM provisioning for ChatGPT Enterprise customers. These govern how developers and employees authenticate into OpenAI’s systems—not how end-users authenticate into your product.

The platform continues to support robust safety layers through the Assistants API (including retrieval), fine-tuning controls, oversight features, and enterprise compliance certifications such as SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001-series standards, GDPR alignment, and HIPAA BAA support.

In short: OpenAI secures the AI platform and provides tools for building safer AI features.

What WorkOS Provides

If you’re building a SaaS application—AI-powered or not—your customers expect enterprise authentication. They need SSO, SCIM directory sync, MFA, role management, automated provisioning, and audit logs. This is the domain WorkOS occupies.

WorkOS provides complete authentication and identity infrastructure for your product. Through a single unified API, your app gains:

• SSO with 30+ identity providers

• Directory Sync (SCIM) for automated onboarding and offboarding

• MFA

• User and organization management

• Fine-grained audit logs

• Admin portal for testing and configuration

• SDKs for every major language and framework

These features secure the entry point to your application—how organizations and their users authenticate, authorize, and manage their accounts at scale.

This layer is not something OpenAI attempts to provide. Their SSO and SCIM controls are for developers accessing OpenAI, not for authenticating external customers into your product. The two systems live at different layers of the stack.

WorkOS exists to help your team deliver enterprise-ready authentication in days instead of rebuilding it all from scratch. The pricing model scales with your business and supports both early-stage startups and large enterprises.

How They Fit Together in a Full-Stack AI System

This is where confusion usually arises.

Both OpenAI and WorkOS offer “SSO,” but they solve different problems:

OpenAI’s SSO secures access to OpenAI’s platform—your engineering team, employees, and developers logging into ChatGPT Enterprise or managing API access.

WorkOS’s SSO secures access to your application—your customers logging into your SaaS platform through Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, OneLogin, Entra ID, and more.

These are complementary layers:

• Your engineering team uses OpenAI SSO to safely access the AI platform.

• Your application uses OpenAI’s API to deliver AI-powered features.

• Your customers use WorkOS SSO to securely access your product.

There is no overlap. Both are required for a mature, enterprise-grade AI system.

Final Thoughts

OpenAI’s recent releases—Aardvark and gpt-oss-safeguard—demonstrate a deeper investment in securing the AI layer: platform access, vulnerability detection, safety-reasoning models, and compliance. These tools strengthen how teams build and operate AI capabilities.

But when it comes to authenticating customers into your product, managing organizations, syncing directories, enforcing MFA, and delivering enterprise onboarding, OpenAI does not provide the infrastructure you need. That is the role of WorkOS.

The strongest full-stack AI architecture uses both:

WorkOS to authenticate your customers and secure your product.

OpenAI to power and secure the AI capabilities inside it.

Each system excels at its own layer of the stack—and together they form a foundation for shipping production-ready, enterprise-class AI applications.