OpenAI Codex App: The response to Claude Code's $1B success

OpenAI officially launched Codex App, their direct response to Claude Code’s massive success. With one million monthly active developers since its December launch, OpenAI aims to regain ground in the AI coding market that Anthropic dominates.

The context: Claude Code’s success

Claude Code became a phenomenon in 2025:

Metric	Claude Code
Annualized revenue	$1 billion
Time to $1B	6 months
Enterprise users	Thousands of companies
Main use	Full-stack development

For context, ChatGPT took 2 years to reach that figure.

OpenAI Codex App: Main features

Multiple simultaneous agents

The star feature: managing multiple AI agents in parallel for long projects:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                CODEX APP - MULTI-AGENT                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│   Project: E-commerce Migration                             │
│                                                              │
│   Agent 1 (Backend)     Agent 2 (Frontend)     Agent 3     │
│   ┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌───────────┐  │
│   │ Migrating APIs  │  │ Updating React  │  │ Writing   │  │
│   │ from REST to    │  │ components      │  │ E2E tests │  │
│   │ GraphQL         │  │                 │  │           │  │
│   │ [████████░░]    │  │ [██████░░░░]    │  │ [████░░░░░]│  │
│   │ 80%             │  │ 60%             │  │ 40%        │  │
│   └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └───────────┘  │
│                                                              │
│   Total: 3 active agents | Estimated time: 2h 15m          │
│                                                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Persistent project context

Unlike traditional chat, Codex App:

• Maintains complete project context
• Remembers architectural decisions
• Understands dependencies between files
• Tracks changes and can revert

OpenAI ecosystem integration

Feature	Availability
GPT-5.2 Codex	Generation backend
ChatGPT Plus	Integrated
API access	Available
GitHub Copilot	Complementary

Comparison: Codex App vs Claude Code

Features

Feature	Codex App	Claude Code
Multi-agent	Yes, native	Limited
CLI	Desktop app	CLI + Desktop
Context window	128K tokens	200K tokens
Autonomous mode	Yes	Yes (excellent)
Git integration	Yes	Yes
Refactoring	Good	Excellent
Debugging	Very good	Excellent

Pricing (estimated)

Plan	Codex App	Claude Code
Free	50 requests/day	20 requests/day
Pro	$25/month	$20/month
Team	$30/user/month	$25/user/month
Enterprise	Custom	Custom

Languages and frameworks

Both support major ones, but with differences:

Codex App better at:

• Python (ML/AI)
• JavaScript/TypeScript
• Azure integration

Claude Code better at:

• Multi-language projects
• Large codebases (200K+ lines)
• Complex refactoring

Use cases: When to use each

Use Codex App if:

1. Working with multiple parallel tasks - Multi-agent system is superior
2. Your stack is mainly Python/JS - Better optimized
3. Already using OpenAI/Azure - Native integration
4. Want graphical UI - Desktop app is polished

Use Claude Code if:

1. Very large codebases - Better context window
2. Need deep refactoring - Superior in structural changes
3. Legacy projects - Better understanding of old code
4. Prefer CLI - Smoother experience

Recommended hybrid workflow

In our practice, we use both:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  HYBRID WORKFLOW                             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│   1. Planning and architecture                              │
│      → Claude Code (better reasoning)                       │
│                                                              │
│   2. Parallel feature development                           │
│      → Codex App (multi-agent)                              │
│                                                              │
│   3. Refactoring and cleanup                                │
│      → Claude Code (more precise)                           │
│                                                              │
│   4. Testing and debugging                                  │
│      → Both work well                                       │
│                                                              │
│   5. Documentation                                          │
│      → ChatGPT/Claude (not coding tools)                    │
│                                                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The AI Coding market in 2026

Tool	Estimated users	Strength
GitHub Copilot	15M+	Inline completions
Claude Code	5M+	Autonomous development
Cursor	3M+	IDE integration
Codex App	1M+ (growing)	Multi-agent
Devin	100K+	Full autonomy

What’s next

Q1 2026

• Codex App: Multi-agent improvements
• Claude Code: Claude Sonnet 5 integration
• GitHub Copilot: Workspace improvements

Q2 2026

• Market consolidation
• Possible acquisitions
• More competitive pricing

Conclusion

Competition between OpenAI and Anthropic in AI coding is excellent for developers:

• Better tools
• More competitive pricing
• More innovation

We recommend trying both tools and choosing based on your workflow. Most teams will end up using both for different tasks.

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