OpenAI Codex pricing, price hikes and cheaper alternatives
OpenAI Codex (openai.com) is a AI coding tool. Included in ChatGPT subscriptions (Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise) with plan-based usage limits, or billed at API rates with an API key.. Free plan: ChatGPT Free includes Codex for quick coding tasks with GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app (subject to rollout)..
What OpenAI Codex costs
- Solo: $8/mo (ChatGPT Go $8/mo includes Codex for lightweight tasks (US, may include ads); Plus $20/mo adds Codex web, CLI, IDE and cloud features)
- Top plan: $500/mo (ChatGPT Pro 500 $500/mo (Pro tiers $100/$200/$500, monthly billing only))
- Team of 10: $250/mo (ChatGPT Business Standard seat $25/user/mo monthly x 10 = $250 ($20/user billed annually); 2-user minimum)
Plan compared: ChatGPT Go. Monthly list price in USD on monthly billing (annual-only plans divided by 12). Solo is the cheapest paid plan one developer can buy, Top is the most expensive individual tier, and Team of 10 is ten seats on the cheapest team plan with central billing and admin; pay-as-you-go model usage beyond what a plan includes is not counted.
What OpenAI Codex does
Core: Agentic coding tool, Terminal agent (CLI), Background cloud agents.
Important: VS Code and JetBrains extensions (partly), Web and mobile access, Slack and issue triggers, AI pull request review, MCP tool connections, Rules, commands and subagents, Plan and spec mode, Team admin and analytics, Privacy and compliance (partly), Open source or self-hosted, Automated fixes (partly), AI test generation.
Also has: Codebase indexing (partly), AI-native code editor (partly), Bring your own API key, Built-in browser testing, Design to code (partly), Static code analysis (partly), IDE & pre-commit checks (partly), Multi-platform Git support (partly), Self-hosting & open source (partly).
OpenAI Codex price hikes
- Codex on ChatGPT Pro 200 now gives new subscribers less usage for $200 · Sep 29, 2026
OpenAI reopened the $200 Pro plan as Pro 200 with a lower included allowance, reported as about 10x Plus in Codex and ChatGPT Work instead of 20x, and added a $500 Pro tier for the top usage.
Alternatives to OpenAI Codex
OpenAI Codex is the cheapest AI coding tool we track at 1 developer. The others:
- Cursor: $8/mo
- GitHub Copilot: $10/mo
- Claude Code: $20/mo
OpenAI Codex alternatives: 3 AI coding tools compared, at every size.
Other kinds of products that cover part of OpenAI Codex
- GitHub (Code hosting & CI): covers 81% of OpenAI Codex; missing or partial: Terminal agent (CLI) (partly), VS Code and JetBrains extensions, MCP tool connections (partly), Plan and spec mode (partly), Bring your own API key
- GitLab (Code hosting & CI): covers 76% of OpenAI Codex; missing or partial: Terminal agent (CLI) (partly), Web and mobile access (partly), Slack and issue triggers (partly), MCP tool connections (partly), Rules, commands and subagents (partly)
- Claude (AI assistants): covers 68% of OpenAI Codex; missing or partial: Terminal agent (CLI), VS Code and JetBrains extensions, Slack and issue triggers (partly), AI pull request review, Open source or self-hosted
- Replit (AI app builders): covers 56% of OpenAI Codex; missing or partial: Terminal agent (CLI), VS Code and JetBrains extensions, Slack and issue triggers, AI pull request review, MCP tool connections (partly)
- v0 (AI app builders): covers 51% of OpenAI Codex; missing or partial: Terminal agent (CLI), VS Code and JetBrains extensions, Slack and issue triggers, AI pull request review, MCP tool connections (partly)
Every change we logged
- Sep 29, 2026 · Limits cut: OpenAI reopened the $200 Pro plan as Pro 200 with a lower included allowance, reported as about 10x Plus in Codex and ChatGPT Work instead of 20x, and added a $500 Pro tier for the top usage.
- Apr 9, 2026 · Repriced: OpenAI added a $100/month Pro tier with 5x Plus Codex usage below the $200 Pro plan, and rebalanced Plus Codex usage toward more sessions across the week rather than long sessions in one day.
- Apr 2, 2026 · Price cut: ChatGPT Business seats, which include Codex, fell by $5: from $30 to $25 per user per month on monthly billing and from $25 to $20 on annual billing.
Sources
Pricing page: learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing. Prices last checked Oct 16, 2026. Prices from OpenAI's Codex pricing page (developers.openai.com/codex/pricing now redirects to learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing), consistent with chatgpt.com/pricing; changes from PricingSaaS and OpenAI help center. Go's Codex is limited to lightweight tasks in the desktop app.