Codex
OpenAI's official coding agent that runs in your terminal, IDE, or desktop, powered by your ChatGPT account.
🔗 Visit Codex
Description
Most AI coding assistants either live inside one specific editor or require a separate API bill just to try. Codex is OpenAI's answer to the terminal-based coding agent trend: instead of a new subscription, it plugs into the ChatGPT account many developers already pay for.
Codex is an open-source coding agent distributed as a CLI, an IDE extension (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), and a desktop app, all running locally on macOS, Linux, or Windows. It authenticates against a ChatGPT account (or an API key) rather than billing separately, and is built for developers who want an agentic coding assistant that reads, edits, and runs code in their own repositories without leaving the terminal or their existing editor.
💬 Our review
The short version: if you're already paying for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, Codex is effectively a free terminal coding agent bundled into a subscription you may already have, which is a genuinely different value proposition than tools that bill by usage.
Against Claude Code and Cursor, which lead on agentic coding capability and are frequently cited as the sharper tools for complex, multi-file changes, Codex's real advantage is bundling — no separate API bill, and it plugs into the same account as ChatGPT itself. Against GitHub Copilot CLI or Aider, the comparison is closer, and the right choice often comes down to which model family (OpenAI vs. Anthropic vs. open weights) you trust more for your codebase. For a ChatGPT Plus subscriber who hasn't tried an agentic coding tool yet, Codex is close to a free trial; for someone already deep into Claude Code or Cursor, switching costs more than the marginal quality difference usually justifies.
💰 Pricing
📊 Global score
🤖 AI-enriched data
CLI open-source et gratuite ; nécessite un abonnement ChatGPT actif (Plus 20$/mois, Pro 200$/mois, ou Business/Enterprise) pour fonctionner
Pros
gratuit à l'usage si on a déjà ChatGPT Plus, pas de facturation API séparée
s'intègre au terminal, à VS Code, Cursor et Windsurf
open-source et exécuté localement
compatible macOS, Linux et Windows
Cons
nécessite un abonnement ChatGPT actif pour fonctionner, pas totalement gratuit
considéré par une partie de la communauté comme moins abouti que Claude Code sur les tâches agentiques complexes
lié à l'écosystème OpenAI, pas de choix de modèle tiers natif