OpenAI's Codex vs Claude Code: 14x Cheaper, Nearly as Good
Your company's AI coding bill could drop 93% if it picks the cheaper tool.
Two of the biggest names in AI just released brand-new coding assistants one day apart. Anthropic launched an upgraded Claude Code on September 28, and OpenAI answered with Codex running on its newest model the next day. Both tools are designed to do the same job: act like a junior programmer that reads your instructions and writes or fixes software code for you.
The headline numbers are surprising. Independent tester Artificial Analysis gave Claude Code a score of 68 out of 100, versus 63 for Codex. But dig deeper and Codex wins on almost everything else. It costs about $1.04 per coding task, while Claude Code costs $14.19 — roughly 14 times more. Codex also finishes in about 16 minutes, compared to 90 minutes for Claude Code. And when both tools are pushed to the same effort level, they tie at 63 — but Codex still stays cheaper and faster.
For anyone running a business or a software team, that gap adds up fast. If your company hands 100 coding tasks a month to an AI, the difference could be thousands of dollars. A July study found developers who regularly used these command-line AI assistants merged roughly 24% more code changes into their projects — meaning real productivity, not just hype.
The catch is security. Investigators found a Codex flaw that could leak a user's GitHub login token, and Claude Code had permission settings that could be bypassed until it patched them. Anthropic says users approve 93% of its permission prompts, but its safety filter still missed 17% of risky actions in testing. Translation: don't hand these tools your most sensitive code without checking the security controls first.
- Claude Code scores higher on tests, but Codex does similar work 14 times cheaper and roughly six times faster.
- Codex costs about $1.04 per coding task versus $14.19 for Claude Code — a huge difference for teams doing many tasks.
- Both tools have had security holes, so check permissions and credentials before letting them near your code.
Why It Matters
If your company uses AI coders, the cheaper one could slash software costs dramatically — after you check security.