Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex CLI: Which AI Coding Agent Should You Use in 2026?
Terminal-native AI coding agents have moved from novelty to necessity for many developers in 2026. Two tools dominate this space: Claude Code from Anthropic and Codex CLI from OpenAI. Both live in your terminal, both understand your codebase, and both can edit files and run commands autonomously — but they have meaningfully different designs, pricing models, and strengths. If you’re choosing between them, this guide gives you a direct comparison: feature matrix, installation steps, pricing breakdowns, real-world scenarios, and a clear recommendation for different types of developers. I’ve used both tools on active projects, so the analysis here goes beyond surface-level feature lists. ...