Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex: pricing & features compared
Short answer: Claude Code has no free plan, with paid plans from US$20/mo (Pro). OpenAI Codex has a free plan, with paid plans from US$8/mo (Go). OpenAI Codex is cheaper to start. Both are Terminal coding agents. Verified from each vendor's pricing page on 28 Oct 2026.
Anthropic's and OpenAI's coding agents, each bundled into their chat subscriptions.
Every cell links to the vendor page it came from. Last verified 28 Oct 2026.
Key differences (from the vendors' own pages)
- OpenAI Codex has a free option (free plan); Claude Code is listed as: no free plan.
- OpenAI Codex's cheapest paid plan (Go, US$8/mo) costs less than Claude Code's (Pro, US$20/mo). Check what each includes: usage allowances differ.
Side-by-side
| Claude Code | OpenAI Codex | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Terminal coding agents | Terminal coding agents |
| Free tier | No free plan Claude Code is not included on the Claude Free plan source · verified 2026-10-28 | Free plan Included with ChatGPT Free for quick coding tasks source · verified 2026-10-28 |
| Cheapest paid plan | Pro: US$20/mo source · verified 2026-10-28 | Go: US$8/mo source · verified 2026-10-28 |
| All plans | Pro: US$20/mo Max 5x / 20x: US$100/mo Team: Contact / not captured Enterprise: US$20/seat/mo | Free: Free Go: US$8/mo Plus: US$20/mo Pro: US$100/mo Business: US$20/user/mo Enterprise & Edu: Contact / not captured |
| Platforms | Terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, Desktop, Web source · verified 2026-10-28 | Terminal, Desktop app source · verified 2026-10-28 |
| Key features |
source · verified 2026-10-28 |
source · verified 2026-10-28 |
| Open source | - | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI) |
| Last verified | 28 Oct 2026 | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Visit Claude Code ↗Direct link: no affiliate ID | Visit OpenAI Codex ↗Direct link: no affiliate ID |
Hands-on notes
Placeholder - not yet tested. This section is reserved for our own hands-on test of Claude Code and OpenAI Codex:
what we built, how long it took, what broke, and what it cost. Nothing here is written until we have actually used it. No ratings or reviews are shown until then.