OpenAI Codex CLI vs Continue: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Continue across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Continue across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
Either way, you pay for the model calls. A median coding-agent day on our gateway is 95 requests and 8.6 million tokens. The table prices every step at one model’s rate.
Both run on Standard Compute, where each step goes to the cheapest model that can do it: routine steps go to efficient open models, hard ones to frontier models such as Claude Fable 5.1 or GPT-6 Astra.
| Model | Typical day | Busy day |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $7.34 | $59.10 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $3.67 | $29.55 |
| GPT-6 Luna | $0.23 | $2.43 |
Fixed monthly plans from $19. Eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute first, no card. Trial terms
Pick a winner in each category. You can change your vote anytime. 3 votes cast so far.
CodexContinueChoose OpenAI Codex CLI if you are chatGPT subscribers who want a capable terminal agent at no extra cost. Choose Continue if you are developers who want full control over their AI coding assistant.
In our editorial scoring, OpenAI Codex CLI leads in 4 of six categories (output quality, autonomy, reliability and speed), while Continue leads in 1 (value). On price, OpenAI Codex CLI runs included with every chatgpt plan / api and is open source; Continue runs free (byo api key), no longer maintained and is open source.
Across 3 community votes on this matchup, Continue currently leads in 1 of six categories. Cast your own vote above to move the needle.
What it costs to run Codex or Continue
Best API for Codex →
3 options compared, with prices and limits
Best API for Continue →
4 options compared, with prices and limits
Standard Compute sends each step to the cheapest model that can do it, on providers we vet for price, uptime and speed. Plans start at $19 a month, and eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute with no card. Choose your agent below to connect.
See the trial and activation steps →
More on Codex: Is Codex CLI free, and what does it cost? · How do I use GLM 5.3 in Codex CLI?
Codex CLI is OpenAI's open-source coding agent for the terminal. It edits files, runs commands in a sandbox with configurable approval modes, and can hand longer tasks off to Codex cloud to run in the background; the same agent also ships as an IDE extension and a desktop app. Usage is included with every ChatGPT plan, from Free and Go up to Plus and the $100 to $500 Pro tiers, with tighter limits on the cheaper plans, which makes it the default choice for developers already in the OpenAI ecosystem.
Continue is an open-source (Apache 2.0) AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, plus a CLI. It offers chat, autocomplete, and inline editing with full control over which models you use, including local models, cloud APIs, and custom context providers. It is no longer developed: the Continue team joined Cursor, the GitHub repo is read-only, and the last release (2.1.0 for VS Code) shipped in June 2026. The extension still installs and works, but expect no fixes for new models or editor versions.
Codex and Continue both run on Standard Compute
