OpenAI Codex CLI vs Qwen Code: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Qwen Code across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Qwen Code 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.
CodexQwen CodeChoose OpenAI Codex CLI if you are chatGPT subscribers who want a capable terminal agent at no extra cost. Choose Qwen Code if you are developers who want a free, Claude Code-style terminal agent that runs Qwen models next to any other provider.
In our editorial scoring, OpenAI Codex CLI leads in 4 of six categories (output quality, autonomy, reliability and ease of use), while Qwen Code leads in 1 (value). On price, OpenAI Codex CLI runs included with every chatgpt plan / api and is open source; Qwen Code runs free (apache 2.0), bring your own provider and is open source.
What it costs to run Codex or Qwen Code
Best API for Codex →
3 options compared, with prices and limits
Best API for Qwen Code →
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? · Can Codex CLI Use Other Models Like Claude or DeepSeek?
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.
Qwen Code is Alibaba's Qwen team's open-source coding agent. It was originally based on Gemini CLI v0.8.2, stopped syncing with upstream at v0.1 and has been developed on its own since, with frequent releases (v0.25.2 on October 15, 2026). It ships subagents, agent teams, skills, hooks, MCP, plan mode, LSP and git worktrees, plus VS Code, JetBrains and Zed plugins, a desktop app and Telegram, DingTalk, WeChat and Feishu channels. Unlike Gemini CLI it speaks the OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini APIs, so any compatible provider works through modelProviders in ~/.qwen/settings.json. The free Qwen OAuth tier ended on April 15, 2026: the tool is still free, and the models come from Alibaba's Coding Plan or Token Plan, a built-in third-party provider, a local model or a custom provider.
Codex and Qwen Code both run on Standard Compute
