Comparison
Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex
Claude Code: Anthropic's coding agent, in your terminal and your editor. OpenAI Codex: OpenAI's coding agent, included with ChatGPT.
| Claude Code | OpenAI Codex | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.8 | 4.5 |
| Price | Paid Included in Claude's paid plans: Pro $17/month annual ($20 monthly), Max $100 and $200/month. Teams from $20/seat. Also available via API. | Freemium Limited use on the free ChatGPT plan. Go $8/month, Plus $20/month, Pro $100-200/month, Business $25/user/month. Since April 2026 it bills against token credits. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Windows · Mac · Linux · Web | Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · iOS |
Claude Code
- Understands whole repositories and works across many files at once
- One subscription covers Claude web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code
- Anthropic doubled the usage limits in May 2026
- No free plan: it requires a paid subscription from day one
- Once weekly limits run out it can switch to per-token billing
OpenAI Codex
- Included in the ChatGPT subscription you already pay for
- Its CLI is open source and accepts your own API key
- Works in the cloud on several tasks at once
- Since April 2026 it bills against token credits: hard to predict
- Real heavy usage runs to $100-200 a month per developer