Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex

How the plans compare on price, usage limits and reset windows, generated from our Oct 17, 2026 snapshot. OpenAI Codex has the cheaper entry plan ($8 vs $20 per month).

	Claude Code	OpenAI Codex
Vendor	Anthropic	OpenAI
Type	Terminal / IDE agent (bundled with Claude subscription)	Cloud + CLI + IDE agent (bundled with ChatGPT subscription)
Free tier	Yes (no coding agent)	Yes
Cheapest paid plan	Pro, $20/mo	Go, $8/mo
Top individual plan	Max 20x, $200/mo	Pro 500, $500/mo
How limits work	Rolling 5-hour session window plus weekly limits on paid plans; no fixed message count published.	Per-5-hour message estimates on Plus; Pro has no 5-hour limit but weekly limits may apply. Extra usage via ChatGPT credits.
Reset windows	5-hour, weekly	5-hour, weekly

Price ladder

What each tool offers at the same monthly price.

$/month	Claude Code	OpenAI Codex
Free	Free Usage limits apply; no fixed number published. Pro gives at least 5x Free usage per 5-hour session.	Free Limited; not quantified.
$8	—	Go Limited; not quantified.
$20	Pro At least 5x Free usage per 5-hour session; weekly limits on top. Exact amounts not published.	Plus Estimated local messages per 5 hours: GPT-6 Astra 5-45, GPT-6.1 Sol 15-160, GPT-6 Sol 15-150, GPT-6 Luna 350-3,000. Weekly limits may also apply.
$100	Max 5x 5x Pro per-session usage; weekly limit across all models. Fable capped at 50% of weekly limits.	Pro 100 No 5-hour limit; weekly limits may apply. Exact allowance not published.
$200	Max 20x 20x Pro per-session usage; weekly limit across all models. Fable capped at 50% of weekly limits.	Pro 200 More than Pro 100; no 5-hour limit; weekly limits may apply. Exact allowance not published. New subscriptions get a lower allowance than grandfathered ones.
$500	—	Pro 500 Highest of the three Pro plans; no 5-hour limit; weekly limits may apply. Exact allowance not published.

Sources

https://claude.com/pricing (checked Oct 17, 2026)
https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11049741-what-is-the-max-plan (checked Oct 17, 2026)
https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing (checked Oct 17, 2026)
https://chatgpt.com/pricing (checked Oct 17, 2026)
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9793128-about-chatgpt-pro-tiers (checked Oct 17, 2026)