AgentsClaude Code vs OpenAI Codex vs GitHub Copilot
✓ Last verified October 15, 2026
Pricing and features come from official pages. All three can use frontier models; compare those models on SWE-bench Verified. See the benchmarks we trust.
Short version: Claude Code is terminal-first and bundled with Claude plans; Codex is bundled with ChatGPT plans and strong at parallel cloud tasks; GitHub Copilot is the cheapest entry ($10/mo Pro), works in most editors and turns GitHub issues into pull requests. GitHub Copilot can also hand tasks to Claude and Codex agents (preview).
Quick verdict
Claude Code
Choose it if: developers who live in the terminal.
OpenAI Codex
Choose it if: people who already pay for chatgpt.
GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI)
Choose it if: teams whose code already lives on github.
Side by side
| Agent | Pricing | Best for | Privacy | Skill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code Anthropic | Included with Claude Pro ($20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually) and Max (from $100/mo), and shares the plan's usage limits. Team Standard seats are $20/seat/mo annually ($25 monthly). You can also pay per token through the API. | Developers who live in the terminal; Repo-wide changes with tests | Cloud model; your code stays on your machine except what's sent as context. Also available through Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex AI. | Intermediate |
| OpenAI Codex OpenAI | Included in ChatGPT Free and Go (limited trial access), Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise. Pro comes in $100 and $200 tiers, and Business in $20 and $100 tiers, per OpenAI's Codex pricing page. Usage per 5-hour window depends on the model. You can also pay through an API key. | People who already pay for ChatGPT; Running several cloud coding tasks in parallel | Cloud. Business and Enterprise have separate data controls. | Intermediate |
| GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI) GitHub (Microsoft) | Free $0 (limited chat and agent use); Pro $10/mo; Pro+ $39/mo; Max $100/mo; Business $19/seat/mo; Enterprise $39/seat/mo. Chat, agents, code review and CLI use GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01), and each plan includes a monthly allowance. Code completions don't use credits on paid plans. | Teams whose code already lives on GitHub; Developers who want one assistant across many editors; Assigning issues to an agent that opens pull requests | Cloud. GitHub says it doesn't train on Business or Enterprise data. Free, Pro and Pro+ interactions may be used for training unless you opt out in settings. | Beginner |
Sources (official pages, checked October 15, 2026)
- Claude Code: Claude Code
- Claude Code: Claude plans & pricing
- OpenAI Codex: Codex pricing
- OpenAI Codex: ChatGPT plans
- GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI): Copilot plans & pricing
- GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI): GitHub Docs: Copilot plans (incl. Business & Enterprise)
- GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI): GitHub Docs: Copilot cloud agent
- GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI): GitHub Docs: Copilot CLI
- GitHub Copilot (agent mode, cloud agent & CLI): VS Code: Copilot chat and agents
Benchmarks: SWE-bench Verified · OSWorld · GAIA · HAL (Princeton) · Artificial Analysis