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AnrilX

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AnrilX vs SAP Joule

Four differences that hold whatever SAP does with its licensing next: every figure carries the query that produced it, a saved view cannot drift, no write reaches SAP without a named person, and the whole thing runs inside your own landscape.

Last verified 19 September 2026

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What you get here and cannot get there

Every line in the second column of each card is quoted from SAP's own published material, and appears again in the table below with its dimension. Where SAP states no position, that is what it says.

Every figure shows its work

The Source Line prints under the number: entity set, field, aggregation, filter and period. A controller can recompute the figure by hand and find the same answer, which is the difference between a number you can take to a board and a number you have to believe.

Joule's answers are grounded in SAP's business data and semantics; the derivation is not printed.

A saved view cannot drift

A stored dashboard or report holds a compiled query, so re-opening it is a database read plus an SAP read. No model call runs, so nothing is re-reasoned; the figure in the board pre-read is the figure in the board meeting.

Not a claim SAP makes either way in published material.

No write happens without a named person

There is no automatic write branch to configure, so there is none to leave switched on. Every write stops and shows the operation, the entity set, the record and each field that changes. No confidence threshold releases it.

Joule agents execute workflow steps; approval behaviour depends on the assistant and the process.

It runs inside your landscape

An on-premise install in your own environment. Your SAP data, your documents and your policies stay where they are, and nothing crosses the network boundary for a read. There is no shared multi-customer store for cross-customer learning to happen in.

Joule runs in SAP's data centres and needs BTP, Build Work Zone and Cloud Identity Services alongside it.

The call path

Where the model is, and where it is not

The reason a figure can carry its derivation, and the reason a write cannot happen quietly, are the same reason: the model never touches the query or the call. It chooses from a list the platform built out of your own published catalogue, and the platform compiles everything that follows.

  1. 1

    A named person asks

    Identity is theirs, not a service account. What they can reach is what their own SAP authorisations already permit.

  2. 2

    The model picks from a list

    Candidates the platform built from your published catalogue. It cannot name an entity outside that list, write a filter, or write a date.

  3. 3

    The platform compiles the call

    A structured query against a published OData service. No planned sequence of API calls, which is the shape SAP's API policy restricts.

  4. 4

    A read returns, or a write stops

    Reads run. Writes halt here for a named approver, showing operation, entity set, record and every field that changes.

  5. 5

    Everything is recorded

    Prompt, plan and tool call correlated in one trail: the audit granularity SAP's ecosystem states as the requirement.

Who can actually get it

Standard entitlement

SAP Joule

SAP cloud editions: S/4HANA Cloud public and private, SuccessFactors, SAP Start. Requires SAP BTP, Build Work Zone and Cloud Identity Services alongside it.

AnrilX

Deployed on-premise, into your own landscape. No BTP entitlement and no Work Zone prerequisite.

ECC and on-premise S/4HANA

SAP Joule

Since Sapphire in May 2026, extended to these landscapes, but only for customers who have already started on RISE with SAP, have shifted at least 50% of maintenance spend to the cloud, and have signed the Max Success Plan. SAP describes it as an interim solution. ECC availability from Q3 2026.

AnrilX

Supported directly: ECC, and S/4HANA on-premise, private cloud and public cloud. No RISE commitment, no maintenance-spend threshold, and no interim-solution caveat attached to it.

If you are not on RISE

SAP Joule

The conditional on-premise route is gated on a RISE commitment, so a customer with no RISE contract is outside it.

AnrilX

No dependency on a RISE contract, a Max Success Plan, or a maintenance-spend threshold.

Where your data goes

Where it runs

SAP Joule

Tenant-level isolation within SAP's cloud. One Joule subscription integrates with one tenant of one SAP product.

AnrilX

On-premise inside your own landscape. Your SAP data, your documents and your policy stay in your environment; there is no shared multi-customer store.

What leaves the boundary

SAP Joule

Processing happens in SAP's data centres, in supported regions.

AnrilX

Nothing crosses the network boundary for a read. Cross-customer learning is not policy-dependent; there is no shared store for it to happen in.

Can you trust the number

Where a figure came from

SAP Joule

Answers are grounded in SAP's business data and semantics.

AnrilX

Every figure prints its Source Line underneath (entity set, field, aggregation, filter and period), so the number can be recomputed by hand rather than taken on trust.

Does a saved view drift

SAP Joule

Not a claim SAP makes either way in published material.

AnrilX

A stored view holds a compiled query, so re-opening it is a database read plus an SAP read. No model call, so nothing is re-reasoned and nothing drifts between the board pre-read and the board meeting.

What happens on a write

Approval

SAP Joule

Agents execute workflow steps; governance and approval behaviour depends on the assistant and the process.

AnrilX

No automatic write branch exists. Every write stops for a named person, showing the exact payload and the exact SAP call; no confidence threshold releases it and no setting turns it off.

Access model

SAP Joule

Enforced at SAP's own authorisation layer; an agent cannot post where the user cannot post.

AnrilX

The same principle, reached differently: a person sees exactly what their own SAP account permits, because AnrilX has no access model of its own.

Cost shape

Metering

SAP Joule

Core assistance is included with current cloud subscriptions; premium scenarios and agent executions consume SAP AI Units, a prepaid consumption currency. SAP does not publish a consolidated AI-unit rate card.

AnrilX

Contact us for a number, which you get on the first call. See the pricing page for the unit and what does and does not move it.

The one to read next

The four claims above are consequences of one design decision: a model reasons about the question, and code queries your SAP. The platform page is where that is spelled out.

How it works

Questions people ask about this

Why not just use Joule, if we already have it?

Because entitlement and capability are different questions. Joule is included with SAP's cloud editions and it drives tasks across SAP's product estate, which is real value. What it is not built to do is print the derivation under a figure so a controller can recompute it, or hold a saved view still between the board pre-read and the board meeting. If those are the questions costing your team days a month, having Joule does not answer them.

So is the difference just licensing?

No, and it would be a weak argument if it were. Licensing terms change; SAP's moved twice in 2026 alone. The durable differences are architectural: where the deployment sits, whether a figure carries its derivation, and whether a write can happen without a named person. Those are properties of how each system is built, and they are the same next quarter.

Can you run alongside Joule?

Yes, and for a lot of landscapes that is exactly what happens. Joule drives transactions inside Fiori; AnrilX answers questions against S/4HANA with the source under every figure. A team running Joule for task execution and AnrilX for the cross-module questions it cannot get an auditable answer to has not bought the same thing twice.

What about SAP's API policy? Does that rule out third-party AI?

It restricts a specific shape rather than the category: an AI that plans, selects and executes sequences of API calls on its own. SAP's own CTO said at Sapphire that they are not keeping agents out, they are letting them in where the interface is defined. The call path above is the answer to that clause: a named person asks, the model picks from a list the platform built, the platform compiles the call, and a write stops for an approver. What we will not tell you is that this makes you compliant; only SAP, your contract or SAP support can answer that for your landscape.

How current is this page?

Last verified 19 September 2026. Every statement in the Joule column comes from SAP's published material, and where SAP publishes no position on something the table says so rather than guessing. If you find something here that has changed, tell us and we will fix it.

Trademarks and affiliation

SAP, S/4HANA, Joule, RISE with SAP, GROW with SAP and SAP Business Technology Platform are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. KO Innovation, the parent organisation of AnrilX, is an SAP silver partner. Neither this site nor the comparisons on it are endorsed or sponsored by SAP SE. Comparisons reflect publicly available SAP documentation and reporting as of 19 September 2026 and are provided for information only; verify current terms with SAP.

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