OpenAI Codex CLI vs Windsurf: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Windsurf across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of OpenAI Codex CLI and Windsurf 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.
OpenAI Codex CLI runs 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.
CodexWindsurfChoose OpenAI Codex CLI if you are chatGPT subscribers who want a capable terminal agent at no extra cost. Choose Windsurf if you are developers who want an affordable AI editor with agentic capabilities.
In our editorial scoring, OpenAI Codex CLI leads in 3 of six categories (output quality, autonomy and reliability), while Windsurf leads in 2 (speed and ease of use). On price, OpenAI Codex CLI runs included with every chatgpt plan / api and is open source; Windsurf runs free / $20 pro / $200 max (as devin desktop) and is proprietary.
What it costs to run Codex
Best API for Codex →
3 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 DeepSeek 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.
Windsurf began as Codeium's AI-first code editor, known for its Cascade agent. Cognition (the company behind Devin) bought it in 2025, and since June 2026 it ships as Devin Desktop, "the next generation of Windsurf": an agent command center with a built-in VS Code-style IDE; windsurf.com now redirects there. Plans are shared with Devin: Free, Pro at $20 a month and Max at $200, each with a usage allowance that refreshes daily and weekly, and extra usage billed at API prices.
OpenAI Codex CLI runs on Standard Compute
