Claude vs OpenAI Codex
A side by side look at Claude and OpenAI Codex: pricing, features and what each one is best for.
All 2 checked against the vendor's own pricing page · checked Oct 2026
All comparisons
These tools sit in different categories in our directory, which reflects where each is strongest rather than a filing error.
| Visit Claude | Visit OpenAI Codex | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | ||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Pricing details | Free tier with usage limits. Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually at $200 up front). Max $100/month for 5x Pro usage or $200/month for 20x. Claude Code is included in every paid plan and shares its usage limits; there is no separate Claude Code subscription. Enterprise is $20 per seat per month plus usage at API rates. | Codex has no standalone price. It is bundled with ChatGPT plans (Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) and is usable on the free ChatGPT tier. The Codex CLI itself is Apache-2.0 and free to install. |
| Price range | $0 - $200/moChecked 2026-10-22 | Not published by the vendorChecked 2026-10-12 |
| Free option | Free tier | Free tier |
| What it is | ||
| What it does | Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, strong on long context, refactoring and architectural reasoning. Free tier with limits, Pro at $20 a month. | OpenAI's coding agent, shipping as an Apache-2.0 CLI, an IDE extension, a macOS desktop app and a cloud runner, all tied to a single paid ChatGPT account. |
| The details | ||
| Tags | AICode AssistantRefactoringTypeScriptArchitecture | code-generationsoftware-engineeringdebuggingterminal |
What it costs
- Pricing
- Freemium
- Pricing details
- Free tier with usage limits. Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually at $200 up front). Max $100/month for 5x Pro usage or $200/month for 20x. Claude Code is included in every paid plan and shares its usage limits; there is no separate Claude Code subscription. Enterprise is $20 per seat per month plus usage at API rates.
- Price range
- $0 - $200/moChecked 2026-10-22
- Free option
- Free tier
What it is
- What it does
- Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, strong on long context, refactoring and architectural reasoning. Free tier with limits, Pro at $20 a month.
The details
- Tags
- AICode AssistantRefactoringTypeScriptArchitecture
What it costs
- Pricing
- Freemium
- Pricing details
- Codex has no standalone price. It is bundled with ChatGPT plans (Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) and is usable on the free ChatGPT tier. The Codex CLI itself is Apache-2.0 and free to install.
- Price range
- Not published by the vendorChecked 2026-10-12
- Free option
- Free tier
What it is
- What it does
- OpenAI's coding agent, shipping as an Apache-2.0 CLI, an IDE extension, a macOS desktop app and a cloud runner, all tied to a single paid ChatGPT account.
The details
- Tags
- code-generationsoftware-engineeringdebuggingterminal
Read the full reviews
What each one is actually like to use, tested by hand rather than summarised from the vendor’s own page.
