coding-agents
OpenAI Codex
Codex is included with ChatGPT plans rather than sold as its own subscription. Plus is $20 a month and adds the CLI, IDE, web, iOS, and cloud integrations. An API key bills platform token rates and does not include cloud features.
Answer
OpenAI does not sell a standalone Codex subscription. Codex is included in ChatGPT Free, Go at $8 a month, Plus at $20 a month, Pro at $100, $200, or $500 a month, and Business seats from $20 a month when billed annually. Local messages and cloud chats share the plan allowance. Those are OpenAI's published prices as of 15 October 2026.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Interval | Notes | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | month | Explore Codex on quick tasks. The page lists GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Go | $8 | month | Lightweight coding tasks. Same desktop-app note as Free for GPT-6 Luna. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Plus | $20 | month | Codex on the web, CLI, IDE extension, and iOS. Cloud review and Slack. Credits can extend usage. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Pro | $100, $200, or $500 | month | Three Pro tiers. Ultrafast mode is listed for the $500 tier. The pricing page says Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Business standard annual | $20 | user / month, billed annually | Includes ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex. Minimum two seats. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Business standard monthly | $25 | user / month | Same standard seat billed monthly. Minimum two seats. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Business premium annual | $100 | user / month, billed annually | Higher usage limits for ChatGPT and Codex. Minimum two seats. Seats can be mixed. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Business premium monthly | $125 | user / month | Monthly price for a Business premium seat. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| API key | API token rates | usage | CLI, SDK, and IDE only. No cloud features such as GitHub review or Slack. Model list follows the key. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
| Enterprise | Custom | contract | Contact sales. Flexible pricing can scale with credits instead of a fixed per-seat rate limit. | Official source | 2026-10-15 |
Who it's for
- People who already pay for ChatGPT and want the coding agent on that same plan.
- Teams that want Codex with SAML SSO and a workspace, on Business or Enterprise.
- Automation that should bill an API key in CI, without GitHub review or Slack.
Pros
- One ChatGPT plan covers the CLI, the IDE extension, and, on Plus and above, cloud tasks.
- The docs list GitHub review, Slack, and Linear as cloud integrations when you sign in with ChatGPT.
- API-key auth is available for local CLI and IDE work when a subscription is the wrong fit.
Cons
- Free and Go are described as limited or lightweight. The pricing page does not promise the full cloud surface there.
- Usage is not a fixed message count. OpenAI publishes ranges that vary by model, task, and local versus cloud.
- Signing in with an API key drops cloud features such as GitHub review and Slack, and bills API rates instead of plan allowance.
Test log
No hands-on run is recorded. The lab protocol on the methodology page (a CRUD app, a seeded bug, a refactor, and a Vercel deploy) has not been executed for this page. There is no time, success rate, cost, screenshot, or score to show.
What it is
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent across the CLI, an IDE extension, the desktop app, the web, and iOS. The pricing page treats it as part of ChatGPT, including ChatGPT Work, rather than a separate product you subscribe to.
Cloud tasks, GitHub review, Slack, and Linear are listed for ChatGPT sign-in. An API key is the local-only, metered path.
How usage is described
OpenAI says local messages and cloud chats share one allowance, and that a small script can cost a fraction of what a long task costs. The page also publishes credit rates per million tokens for several models. This summary does not repeat that rate card. Use the pricing page for a live number, and do not treat those credits as a Vibe Stack Lab measurement.
The vendor also says you can run /status in the CLI to see remaining limits, and that a turn already in progress can finish after you hit a limit, subject to fair use.
What this page does not claim
There is no lab transcript and no comparison score against Cursor or Claude Code. Read the comparison page for a side-by-side of published surfaces, not of task results.
Questions
Do I buy Codex on its own?
Not as a separate subscription. The Codex pricing page says ChatGPT Work and Codex are included in Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, and Enterprise. The other path is an API key billed at platform rates.
Are the message ranges on the pricing page a benchmark?
No. OpenAI labels them as estimates of local messages per five hours for Plus and standard Business, and says they are not fixed limits. Vibe Stack Lab did not reproduce them.
What changed for GPT-5.5?
The Codex pricing page says GPT-5.5 retires from Codex with ChatGPT sign-in on 14 October 2026 at noon PDT. API-key sessions are not affected. That is a vendor notice, not a lab result.