OpenCode vs Codex in 2026: which coding agent to use, and when

Disclosure: Enjoy is our product, and it runs both agents. We checked every fact below against OpenAI’s, OpenCode’s and Artificial Analysis’s own pages on November 11, 2026, and we say where you don’t need Enjoy at all.

OpenCode vs Codex, compared

Both do the same job: you describe a change, and the agent reads your project, edits files and runs commands until it’s done. Codex is OpenAI’s, and runs OpenAI’s GPT models on a ChatGPT plan. OpenCode, from Anomaly, is “The open source coding agent for any model,” in its own words, and through OpenAI’s Sign in with ChatGPT, it can run on that same ChatGPT plan too. So the choice is less about which models you can reach, and more about whose agent drives them, and what else you want it to run.

Option	Best for	Price, checked November 11, 2026	Runs on	Models
Codex	GPT, on your ChatGPT plan	ChatGPT Plus $20 a month; Pro $100, $200 or $500; Free and Go get GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app	Mac, Windows, Linux; a desktop app (Linux in preview), editor extensions, the web and iOS	OpenAI’s GPT models; local ones through Ollama or LM Studio
OpenCode	Choosing the model, free and open source	Free; models at their providers’ prices; OpenCode Go $10 a month	Mac, Windows, Linux; a desktop app, the web, and an iPhone app in TestFlight	200+ providers, your ChatGPT or Copilot plan, free and local models
Both, on one project	GPT for the hard parts, other models for the rest	A ChatGPT plan from $20 a month, plus what OpenCode’s other models cost	Mac, Windows, Linux	All of the above
Enjoy	Both in one conversation	A monthly subscription on top of your plans, free for 7 days (pricing)	Mac, Windows, Linux	Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, Antigravity, Muse Code, OpenCode

Prices are each company’s US list prices per month, before tax. ChatGPT Business is $20 a user a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly, and both agents can also run on an OpenAI API key, billed by the token.

How the two differ

	Codex	OpenCode
Coding Agent Index, as tested	55 with GPT-6 Astra; 54 with GPT-6.1 Sol	49, with GLM-5.3
API cost and time per task on the index	$7.04 and 24.8 minutes with GPT-6 Astra; $1.50 and 23.7 minutes with GPT-6.1 Sol	$5.23 and 56.2 minutes
Cheapest way in	ChatGPT Free, with GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app	Free, with its free models or a local one
Your ChatGPT plan	Yes	Yes, from the same allowance
Other ways to pay	An API key; Azure, Amazon Bedrock and local models through its config	200+ providers, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode Go
Open source	The CLI, under Apache 2.0	Yes, under MIT
Permissions out of the box	A sandbox: it edits and runs commands in your project, and asks to go beyond it	Most actions allowed without asking
On Windows	Native, with its own sandbox, or WSL 2	Native builds
Project instructions	AGENTS.md	AGENTS.md

The scores come from Artificial Analysis’s Codex vs OpenCode page, which runs each agent with a model on three benchmarks, FrontierCode v1.1, Terminal-Bench 4.0 and SWE-Atlas-QnA-AA, as it stood on November 11. With GPT-6 Astra, Codex matches OpenCode on SWE-Atlas, 59 each, edges it on FrontierCode, 49 to 48, and leads on Terminal-Bench, 56 to 40. The index has tested Codex with ten models, among them GPT-6 Luna at 31 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at 47, and OpenCode with one, GLM-5.3, so the gap is as much the models’ as the agents’. The index hasn’t scored OpenCode with a GPT model. The costs are “pay-per-token API cost, not consumer plan pricing”: on a plan, a task draws on your limits instead.

Codex

Best for: GPT on the ChatGPT plan you already pay for, with OpenAI’s desktop app, cloud and editors around it.

Codex’s CLI is a “Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal,” open source under Apache 2.0 on GitHub, where it has about 135,000 stars. It also runs in OpenAI’s desktop app, which lets you “Run projects in parallel, work with files, use your computer, and keep long-running work moving from one desktop workspace,” on Mac and Windows; “The ChatGPT desktop app for Linux is available in preview,” its Linux page says. Its README adds extensions for VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf, and Codex cloud at chatgpt.com/codex. It has the higher scores here, and it’s careful by default: “The default permissions mode applies sandboxing automatically,” per its sandboxing docs, so it can “read files, make edits, and run routine project commands within the boundary you already approved,” and asks before going further. On Windows, “Codex uses the native Windows sandbox when you run in PowerShell.” And “Codex reads AGENTS.md files before doing any work,” per its instructions docs.

Price: “Codex is included in your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan,” says Codex’s pricing. Free is $0 and Go $8 a month, and both get “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout,” per OpenAI’s pricing guide. Plus, at $20 a month, includes “Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension, and on iOS,” with GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna. Pro comes in “Plans at $100, $200, or $500 USD per month.” With an API key instead, “OpenAI bills API key usage through your OpenAI Platform account at standard API rates,” says its authentication page.

Watch for: the limits. On Plus, OpenAI estimates 15 to 160 local messages every five hours with GPT-6.1 Sol, and “Weekly limits may also apply”; “Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit.” “ChatGPT Work and Codex share usage,” and from December, “Plus, Pro, and Business plans’ usage allowance will be shared across ChatGPT and Codex,” per OpenAI’s help center, as our memo on the change explains. Your plan covers OpenAI’s models only. Others take a provider in its config file, billed by that provider, or a model on your computer: “Codex can run against a local ‘open source’ provider such as Ollama or LM Studio when you pass --oss.” And the cloud needs your plan: “Codex cloud requires signing in with ChatGPT.”

OpenCode

Best for: choosing the model, from free and local ones to the ChatGPT or Copilot plan you already pay for.

OpenCode calls itself “The open source coding agent.” It’s under the MIT license on GitHub, where it has more than 226,000 stars, and its homepage says it’s “Trusted by 22M+ developers.” Its docs say “It’s available as a terminal-based interface, desktop app, or web app,” with desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux, an iPhone app in TestFlight, and Android “Coming soon.” It has two built-in agents: build, the “Default, full-access agent for development work,” and plan, a “Read-only agent for analysis and code exploration.”

Its models come from wherever you point it: “Start with free models or bring any of 200+ providers,” and “Log in with ChatGPT Plus or Pro or GitHub Copilot.” Its provider docs say “Use a ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan instead of an OpenAI API key,” and OpenAI’s own partner directory lists OpenCode among its open-source integrations, open to “eligible ChatGPT Go, Plus, Pro, and Business subscribers.” On your own computer, “OpenCode probes http://127.0.0.1:11434” for Ollama, and “LM Studio and vLLM also have built-in local discovery.” For instructions, “OpenCode V2 recognizes AGENTS.md only,” per its instructions docs, the same file Codex reads.

Price: the app is free: “The easiest way to start is to download OpenCode and use the free models. No account needed.” With your ChatGPT plan, “Usage counts against your plan, so these models show no cost.” Its Console sells other labs’ models by the token, promising to “Pass along price drops by selling at cost, with markup only to cover processing fees.” OpenCode Go is $10 a month, or $40 for Go Plus, with 32 models, among them GPT 6 Luna, Kimi K3.1 Pro, Gemini 4 Argon and GLM-5.3, the model Artificial Analysis tested OpenCode with, but not GPT-6.1 Sol.

Watch for: your ChatGPT plan isn’t extra usage. Of every app that uses your plan, OpenAI says “It uses your Codex / ChatGPT work usage included in your plan,” and “An app’s limit is a cap, not a separate allowance or a reserved portion of your plan,” so when Codex is out, OpenCode on the same plan is out too. It trims these models’ context too: “By default, OpenCode caps the context window for these sign-ins below each model’s real limit.” Out of the box it asks little: “Every agent, including custom agents, starts with this ordered base policy,” which allows every action and asks only before reading .env files, and “The default policy allows external_directory, so external paths are not prompted unless you add a rule,” says its permissions page; it suggests “A common setup is to ask before running shell commands.” Go has limits of its own: “5-hour — 20% of the monthly limit; weekly — 50%; and monthly — 100%.” Its free models are free “for a limited time,” and for some, “During its free period, collected data may be used to improve the model.” On the index, OpenCode with GLM-5.3 took 111.5 turns and 15.9 million tokens a task, against Codex’s 39.4 and 3.2 million with GPT-6 Astra. And on Windows, “Windows package managers are not supported”: you download its standalone build.

Both, on one project

Best for: GPT on the hard parts, and a cheaper or local model for the rest.

You don’t have to choose. One instruction file serves both, since Codex and OpenCode each read AGENTS.md. One way to split the work: Codex, on your ChatGPT plan, plans and makes the hard changes, and OpenCode, with OpenCode Go, a Copilot plan or a local model, takes the tests, renames and upkeep you’d rather not spend your ChatGPT allowance on.

Price: a ChatGPT plan, from $20 a month, plus whatever OpenCode’s other models cost: nothing for free and local ones, $10 a month for Go, or the Copilot plan you already have.

Watch for: each keeps its own conversations, so when you move a task from one to the other, you tell the second where things stand. If both sign in to the same ChatGPT plan, they share one allowance; OpenAI lets you cap each app’s share of your weekly usage, which keeps OpenCode from using up Codex’s week.

Enjoy

Best for: Codex and OpenCode in one conversation, and more than one ChatGPT account behind Codex.

Enjoy is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux that runs Codex on your ChatGPT plan and OpenCode with the providers set up in it, along with Claude Code, Grok Build, Antigravity and Muse Code. It installs OpenCode for you, and its Model column lists the models OpenCode offers from your providers, local ones included. What it adds for these two:

• One conversation, either agent. Switch agents at any point: “The new agent gets the conversation so far, including replies from other agents, before it works on your message.” Plan with Codex, then have OpenCode with a cheaper model write the tests.
• Every ChatGPT account, signed in. Codex accounts stay signed in side by side, each with its usage bars. When one runs out, Enjoy switches to the next with usage left, or waits for the reset and carries on. “OpenAI sometimes gives Codex accounts free resets,” and Enjoy offers Use a reset on the waiting conversation.
• OpenCode’s approvals, as cards. “When OpenCode’s permission settings say to ask first, Enjoy shows an approval card in the conversation,” and its Build and Plan modes are in Enjoy’s Permissions column.
• A night shift. A scheduled workflow can run OpenCode with a local model overnight, with no plan to run out.

Price: Enjoy is one monthly subscription, and the first seven days are free, with a card to start. It includes your phone and any browser and one computer; each other computer is $9.99 a month, and each teammate you invite needs a subscription of their own. See pricing.

Watch for: Enjoy doesn’t sign OpenCode in to your ChatGPT plan: OpenCode runs on the providers set up in OpenCode itself, which you add in a terminal, and “There’s no account to switch for OpenCode in Enjoy.” Enjoy shows Usage unavailable for OpenCode, “because usage depends on each provider.” Waiting for a reset needs “Your computer must be on, with Enjoy open, when the usage resets,” and scheduled workflows run only while it’s awake with Enjoy open. Enjoy isn’t open source, and it’s a monthly subscription on top of your AI plans once the free week ends.

When to stay with the one you have

Stay with Codex if GPT does your work and you use OpenAI’s desktop app, cloud or editor extension: it’s the higher scorer as tested, it’s sandboxed by default, and Pro plans have no five-hour limit. If limits are the problem, OpenCode on the same plan won’t help, because it spends the same allowance; a bigger plan or credits will, as our ChatGPT plans guide works out.

Stay with OpenCode if you like choosing the model, mix providers, or want free and local models. Moving to Codex buys OpenAI’s sandbox, cloud and higher tested scores, and gives up the choice of model, though your ChatGPT plan already works in both.

Add the other when one plan’s limits stop you most weeks and you have another provider to spend, or when you want a second model’s view of the same code. Our Codex alternatives guide compares OpenCode with the other agents people move to.

How we compared

We read OpenAI’s Codex pricing, pricing guide, help center, Sign in with ChatGPT directory, and Codex docs on the CLI, desktop app, Linux, authentication, sandboxing, configuration and AGENTS.md, and Codex’s GitHub repository; OpenCode’s homepage, product page, docs on installation, providers, instructions, permissions, Console and Go, and its GitHub repository; and Artificial Analysis’s Codex vs OpenCode comparison, all on November 11, 2026, and every one is linked below. Star counts come from GitHub that day. We quote each company’s own words for its limits and leave out what it hasn’t documented. The index has tested OpenCode with one model, so we give its figures as tested, not as a verdict on the agent. Plans and models change often, so we recheck this guide against its sources at least once a month, and the date at the foot of the page says when we last did.