Claude Code by Anthropic vs Codex by OpenAI
Coding agent for the terminal and IDE that edits, runs tests and opens pull requests with your permission.
Open source coding agent that runs locally in the terminal, IDE or desktop app and comes with ChatGPT plans.
Editor's framing updated 19 October 2026.
How we pick: no paid placement; facts come from vendor pages.
How to choose
Claude Code and Codex are both coding agents recorded with a developer setup and optional human review, and both list code generation and bug fixing as use cases. Their listings record different routes in: Claude Code is included in Anthropic's paid plans and is also available through the API, while Codex signs in with a ChatGPT plan or an API key. Codex is the one of the two recorded as open source, with its CLI published under the Apache-2.0 licence. Choose by where you already work, which subscription your team already holds and whether an open source client matters to you, then confirm current plans with each vendor.
Our takeNo winner is declared here. The practical question is which plan your team already pays for and which surfaces, terminal, IDE or web, you want the agent in.
Side by side
Every cell comes from the two listings; "Not published" means the vendor's pages did not state it when checked.
| Field | Claude CodeAnthropic | CodexOpenAI |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription | Subscription |
| Pricing from | $20/moChecked 23 September 2026 | Not published |
| Setup | Developer setup | Developer setup |
| Access | Desktop app, IDE, Web app, Mobile app, Slack, API | Desktop app, IDE, Web app |
| Human review | Optional review | Optional review |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Integrations | 4 | 3 |
| Checked on | 23 September 2026 | 23 September 2026 |