Gemini CLI vs OpenAI Codex
Gemini CLI (Google) and OpenAI Codex (OpenAI) side by side on public data, as of Oct 6, 2026.
OpenAI Codex has 56.5x the weekly package downloads of Gemini CLI (25.6M against 453K). OpenAI Codex has 13.7x the VS Code extension installs of Gemini CLI (15.2M against 1.1M). OpenAI Codex has 1.2x the GitHub stars of Gemini CLI (128K against 107K). Over the last 30 days downloads moved +2% for Gemini CLI and +21% for OpenAI Codex.
Side-by-side numbers
| Metric | Gemini CLI | OpenAI Codex |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Score | 57 | 82 |
| Overall rank | #24 | #1 |
| Downloads, last 7 days | 453K | 25.6M |
| Downloads, 7-day change | up 4.7% | up 5.7% |
| Downloads, 30-day change | up 1.8% | up 21.2% |
| VS Code installs | 1.1M | 15.2M |
| Marketplace rating | 4.1 / 5 (21) | 2.9 / 5 (725) |
| GitHub stars | 107K | 128K |
| Homebrew installs, 30 days | 2,855 | 89.7K |
| Hacker News mentions, 30 days | 28 | 1,782 |
| Latest stable release | 0.62.0 · 7d ago | 0.160.1 · yesterday |
| Stable releases, 90 days | ||
| Terminal-Bench (best run) | 65.8% · v2.1 | 58.2% · v4.0 |
| Price | Varies | Free + $8/mo |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| First released | June 2025 | April 2025 |
| Interfaces | CLI, IDE extension | CLI, IDE extension, Desktop, Web, Mobile, SDK |
| Models | Google Gemini models (Gemini 3 per site) via a Gemini/Vertex AI API key or a Code Assist license | OpenAI GPT models (GPT-6 family per current docs) via ChatGPT sign-in or an OpenAI API key |
Trends
Gemini CLI
Google's open-source terminal agent that brings Gemini models to the command line for code editing, shell commands and MCP tools. Since 2026-06-18 it no longer serves free, Google AI Pro/Ultra or Google One users, who were moved to Antigravity CLI.
Pricing: As of 2026-06-18 the free Code Assist for individuals tier and Google AI Pro/Ultra access ended; Gemini CLI continues with paid Gemini/Vertex API keys (pay as you go) and Gemini Code Assist Standard/Enterprise licenses (1,500/2,000 requests per user per day per the quota docs). Antigravity CLI is free to everyone.
Latest release 0.62.0:
- fix(a2a-server): add early return on unsupported store in tasks metadata endpoint
- Changelog for v0.61.0-preview.0
- Changelog for v0.60.0
- fix(core,acp): format MCP tool call titles as structured signatures and segregate explanations
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.