Cursor vs OpenAI Codex

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.

Compared on	Cursor Free plan · from $20/mo Visit Remove	OpenAI Codex Free plan · from $8/mo Visit Remove
What it is	AI code editor with agents that write and change code	OpenAI's coding agent for the terminal, IDEs, desktop app and cloud
Free plan	Hobby plan: limited Agent requests, access to Composer, no credit card required	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
Cheapest paid plan	$20/mo (Pro)Cursor pricing	$8/mo (ChatGPT Go)OpenAI Codex pricing
What it covers	The page says yearly billing saves 20%; yearly per-month prices were not shown.	Codex comes with ChatGPT plans; Plus ($20/month) expands Codex usage. Codex can also be used with an API key at standard API rates.
Free trial	None stated	None stated
Platforms	macOS, Windows, Linux, Web	macOS, Windows, Linux, Web, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	Yes
Good for	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	Building a small feature from a plain-language description Reviewing code changes before merging Investigating and fixing failing builds
Watch out for	The Hobby plan has limited Agent requests Bugbot is billed on usage on top of the plan price Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales	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
Made by	Anysphere, Inc.	OpenAI

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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