Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex
Claude Code (Anthropic) and OpenAI Codex (OpenAI) side by side on public data, as of Oct 6, 2026.
OpenAI Codex has 1.7x the weekly package downloads of Claude Code (25.6M against 14.8M). Claude Code has 1.8x the VS Code extension installs of OpenAI Codex (27.1M against 15.2M). Claude Code has 1.2x the GitHub stars of OpenAI Codex (150K against 128K). Over the last 30 days downloads moved -36% for Claude Code and +21% for OpenAI Codex. Claude Code shipped 74 stable releases in the past 90 days.
Side-by-side numbers
| Metric | Claude Code | OpenAI Codex |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Score | 80 | 82 |
| Overall rank | #3 | #1 |
| Downloads, last 7 days | 14.8M | 25.6M |
| Downloads, 7-day change | up 11.6% | up 5.7% |
| Downloads, 30-day change | down 36.4% | up 21.2% |
| VS Code installs | 27.1M | 15.2M |
| Marketplace rating | 3.7 / 5 (894) | 2.9 / 5 (725) |
| GitHub stars | 150K | 128K |
| Homebrew installs, 30 days | 28.3K | 89.7K |
| Hacker News mentions, 30 days | 1,350 | 1,782 |
| Latest stable release | 2.1.290 · yesterday | 0.160.1 · yesterday |
| Stable releases, 90 days | 74 | |
| Terminal-Bench (best run) | 57.9% · v4.0 | 58.2% · v4.0 |
| Price | $20/mo | Free + $8/mo |
| License | Proprietary | Apache-2.0 |
| First released | February 2025 | April 2025 |
| Interfaces | CLI, IDE extension, Desktop, Web, Mobile, SDK | CLI, IDE extension, Desktop, Web, Mobile, SDK |
| Models | Anthropic Claude models via Claude plans, a Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers | OpenAI GPT models (GPT-6 family per current docs) via ChatGPT sign-in or an OpenAI API key |
Trends
Claude Code
Anthropic's agentic coding tool that reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands from the terminal, with VS Code and JetBrains integrations plus desktop, web and mobile access. It runs Claude models through a Claude subscription, an Anthropic Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers.
Pricing: Included in paid Claude plans: Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually), Max from $100/month (5x and 20x tiers), Team standard seat $20/seat/month annual ($25 monthly) and premium seat $100 annual ($125 monthly). The Free plan does not include it; pay-as-you-go API credits via a Console account are an alternative.
Latest release 2.1.290:
- Added serverToolUses to the result of a mod's turn.step hook: the tool calls the API ran itself (the advisor), each with its id, name, input, start and end
- Added agentId to the tool.check event of plugin hooks, so a hook can tell a subagent's permission check from the main session's
- Added ceiling to the question and verdict a mod's tool.check hook reads, naming the approval an organization requires for a tool
- Added ThemeKey and Color types to the plugin hooks typings, so an editor lists the theme colors a mod's drawing can name
OpenAI Codex
OpenAI's coding agent, offered as an open-source terminal CLI, an IDE extension, a desktop app and a cloud agent that works on repositories. Users sign in with a ChatGPT account or use an OpenAI API key.
Pricing: Included in ChatGPT plans: Free $0, Go $8/month, Plus $20/month, Pro from $100/month ($100, $200 or $500 tiers), Business $20/user/month billed annually ($25 monthly), Enterprise and Edu by contact. API-key use is billed at API rates (no cloud features).
Latest release 0.160.1:
- Preserve SYSTEMROOT, TEMP, and TMP when launching remote stdio MCP servers with explicitly configured remote environment variables, allowing Unix hosts to retain the Windows executor's startup…
- #51121: Backport Windows remote MCP environment preservation to 0.160.