Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex vs Cursor

Pick up to 4 tools and see their free plans, entry prices, platforms and limits in one table. Every fact comes from each vendor's own pages, checked 23 September 2026.

Written head to head: Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Claude Code From $17/mo Visit Remove	OpenAI Codex Free plan · from $8/mo Visit Remove	Cursor Free plan · from $20/mo Visit Remove
What it is	Anthropic's agentic coding tool for the terminal, IDEs, desktop and web	OpenAI's coding agent for the terminal, IDEs, desktop app and cloud	AI code editor with agents that write and change code
Free plan	No	ChatGPT Free includes limited Codex use for quick coding tasks; Free and Go use GPT-6 Luna at standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout	Hobby plan: limited Agent requests, access to Composer, no credit card required
Cheapest paid plan	$17/mo billed annually (Claude Pro)Claude Code pricing	$8/mo (ChatGPT Go)OpenAI Codex pricing	$20/mo (Pro)Cursor pricing
What it covers	Claude Code is included in Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise and shares usage limits with the subscription. Annual Pro billing is $200 up front. Console accounts pay standard API rates instead.	Codex comes with ChatGPT plans; Plus ($20/month) expands Codex usage. Codex can also be used with an API key at standard API rates.	The page says yearly billing saves 20%; yearly per-month prices were not shown.
Free trial	None stated	None stated	None stated
Platforms	macOS, Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android, API	macOS, Windows, Linux, Web, API	macOS, Windows, Linux, Web
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	Yes	No
Good for	Fixing a bug by pasting in the error message Writing tests and updating dependencies across a project Automating code review on GitHub	Building a small feature from a plain-language description Reviewing code changes before merging Investigating and fixing failing builds	Building or changing a small app by describing the change Fixing bugs across several files Running coding tasks in the cloud while away from the desk
Watch out for	Not included in the free Claude plan Usage counts against the same limits as the Claude subscription The desktop app requires a paid subscription	Usage limits depend on the ChatGPT plan, the model and task size, measured per five-hour window Free and Go include only limited Codex access API-key use is billed separately at API rates	The Hobby plan has limited Agent requests Bugbot is billed on usage on top of the plan price Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales
Made by	Anthropic	OpenAI	Anysphere, Inc.

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

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