OpenAI's coding agent, available as CLI, IDE extension and cloud.
Coding Agentsfreemium
OpenAI Codex vs Cursor for AI coding: which should you use?
Verdict: Cursor is our #1 AI IDE and Codex is our #2 terminal coding agent, so choose Cursor for an AI-first editor and Codex if you want an open-source CLI that comes with your ChatGPT plan.
Pick by use case
- OpenAI Codex is #2 in “Best terminal/CLI coding agent”.
- Cursor is #1 in “Best AI IDE for vibe coding”.
| Feature | OpenAI Codex | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Best StackRank rank | #2 in “Best terminal/CLI coding agent” | #1 in “Best AI IDE for vibe coding” |
| What it is | OpenAI's coding agent, available as CLI, IDE extension and cloud. | AI code editor built on a VS Code fork, with an agent mode. |
| Category | Coding Agents | AI IDEs |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Integrations | CLI, VSCode, Desktop, Web, MCP | IDE, MCP |
| Self-hostable | No / not listed | No / not listed |
| Open-source repo | openai/codex | — |
| Last verified | Oct 14, 2026 | Oct 14, 2026 |
Choose OpenAI Codex if
you want an open-source CLI (Apache 2.0) plus IDE extensions (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains, Xcode), cloud tasks and the ChatGPT desktop app, all on your ChatGPT account. A $0 Free plan includes Codex in the desktop app, subject to rollout. The Codex extension also runs inside Cursor.
Choose Cursor if
you want the agent built into a dedicated editor, with a CLI (headless and GitHub Actions support) and, from Premium, cloud agents from the same vendor, and a choice of models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Cursor and Grok. Cursor isn't open source, its Plus plan is Grok-models-only, and third-party models cost extra at API list price from Premium up.
Try them
Updated Oct 14, 2026 · How we rank