Rating certificate · AW/26-09/11626 Sept 2026
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The Register / Coding agents / Codex (CLI and app)
Register entry · Coding agents · updated 26 Sept 2026
Codex (CLI and app)
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent family. One profile covers the open-source Codex CLI (openai/codex, Rust, Apache-2.0), the Codex desktop app launched in February 2026, the IDE extension for VS Code-based editors and Codex cloud tasks. Local runs use an OS sandbox by default (workspace-write, network off, on-request approvals in version-controlled folders). Codex is included in ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and can also run on API-key billing.
What reviewers and users praise
- Generous usage within ChatGPT subscriptions compared with rivals, per many community comments (HN)
- Strong Terminal-Bench 2.0 result: rank 4 of 43 harnesses
- Safe-by-default local sandbox and approval model (docs)
- Delegation and review workflow in the app praised by reviewers (Every; Composio)
What they criticise
- Usage-limit and rate-limit changes cause sharp complaints (GitHub issue #28879 with 364 upvotes)
- Reported bugs with serious side effects, e.g. $HOME deletion in full-access mode (Simon Willison, July 2026) and excessive SSD writes from logs
- Weak front-end/UI output reported by some users (r/codex)
Experts vs the crowdcrowd warmer by 12
Experts55
Crowd67
| Price | Free, paid from $8 |
|---|---|
| Use it via | CLI, Desktop app, IDE extension, Web app, API |
| Runs on | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Coding agents: adoption 35%, experts 40%, crowd 25%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 35% | 92 | GitHub stars 127k → 94 · npm weekly downloads 19M → 100 · VS Code / Open VSX installs 15M → 86 · Reported users 5M → 73 · 35 releases in 90 days → 100reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 40% | 55 | 8 independent reviews (2 positive · 5 mixed · 1 negative), averaged toward 50 for small samples. Benchmarks, shown not scored: Terminal-Bench 2.0 No. 4 of 43 (Codex CLI + GPT-5.5) |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 25% | 67 | 15 dated posts from hackernews, reddit: 10 positive · 2 mixed · 3 negative (positive + ½ mixed) ÷ n, averaged toward 50 for small samples |
| Rating | 71 | high confidence (3 of 3 pillars, 15 community posts). |
Evidence checks. 3 GitHub issues not counted as sentiment. 2 posts over the three-per-thread limit not counted. How evidence is checked.
Editorial adjustment. One person counts once: HN user raw_anon_1111 appears twice; the later comment (47512554) is kept.
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: B.
A
Permission model
Local Codex recommends Auto (workspace-write sandbox + on-request approvals) for version-controlled folders; network access is off by default; approval modes and an auto-review reviewer agent are documented. source
A
Data access scope
Default sandbox limits writes to the workspace; network off by default; access widened only by explicit configuration. source
B
Data storage
CLI runs locally but prompts and code context are processed by OpenAI; cloud tasks run on OpenAI infrastructure; ChatGPT data controls and Business/Enterprise admin controls are documented. source
C
Data retention & training
On Free, Go, Plus and Pro, content may be used for training when 'Improve the model for everyone' is on (default on; user can opt out). Business states no training on business data by default. source
C
Incident history (24 months)
Two advisories affecting @openai/codex in 24 months: CVE-2025-61260 (critical, code execution via malicious MCP configuration files, advisory published 2026-04-14) and CVE-2025-59532 (high, sandbox bypass via path configuration bug, 2025-09-19); both fixed. Plus a July 2026 bug where GPT-5.6 in full-access (unsandboxed) mode could delete $HOME. source
A
Compliance
OpenAI Trust Portal lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017, 27018, 27701, 42001 and others for the API, ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu. Codex is not named explicitly on the portal page read. source
A
Transparency
Codex CLI is open source under Apache-2.0 with public GitHub releases; the desktop app and cloud service are closed. source
The experts
8 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- mixed
This is the first GUI for agentic coding that feels like a step forward for me.
Dan Shipper and Katie Parrott (Every) · 2 Feb 2026 · every.to - positive
Codex wins the stuff I deal with every day.
Prathit Joshi (Composio blog) · 18 Aug 2026 · composio.dev - negative
a pretty gnarly Codex bug
Simon Willison · 16 Jul 2026 · simonwillison.net - mixed
The Codex desktop app doesn't change everything - but it's part of a larger trend worth paying attention to.
Ben Shoemaker · 4 Feb 2026 · benshoemaker.us - mixed
Codex 5.3 is powerful but fundamentally stateless, which breaks assumptions in mature engineering orgs.
Josh Rowe (For Every Scale) · 10 Feb 2026 · foreveryscale.com - positive
Claude Code may dominate the current mindshare for agent harnesses, yet Codex is becoming the more important substrate.
Leonardo Gonzalez (Trilogy AI Center of Excellence) · 24 Apr 2026 · trilogyai.substack.com - mixed
Claude Code has the deepest harness and fastest terminal. Codex covers more surfaces at a lower price.
Hiba Fathima (Firecrawl blog) · 3 Jun 2026 · firecrawl.dev - mixed
For me, Codex feels easier to open. It also feels more like a super-app that can do many things.
Wyndo and Dheeraj Sharma (The AI Maker) · 14 Jun 2026 · aimaker.substack.com
The crowd
15 coded posts from hackernews, reddit.
10 positive2 mixed3 negative
- positive
Codex CLI with the GPT-5-codex model is the current leader over Claude Code and Sonnet 4.5 in the current Java-oriented benchmarks.
HN comment · 30 Oct 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
It's good, and the one feature that I really liked was the ability to review the diff inside the app and leave inline comments.
HN comment · 10 Feb 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
I’ve been using Codex for several months now, and honestly, I’ve been very satisfied with it.
r/codex · 21 Mar 2026 · reddit.com - positive
I use codex-cli every day instead of Claude and never have to think about limits.
HN comment · 25 Mar 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
I don't know why, but Claude and Codex CLI feel significantly slower for me than the UI versions.
HN comment · 29 Mar 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Genuinely blown away. It feels like Christmas every morning.
r/codex · 30 Mar 2026 · reddit.com - negative
Tried multiple frontend skills, spoon fed details, and still codex 5.4 ends up making shit ass UIs.
r/codex · 30 Mar 2026 · reddit.com - positive
I've had all my best results from Codex CLI though.
HN comment · 23 Jul 2026 · news.ycombinator.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Limited Codex use on quick coding tasks. |
| Go | $8 / monthly | Lightweight coding tasks. |
| Plus | $20 / monthly | Web, CLI and IDE support; usage shared with ChatGPT Work. |
| Pro | $100 / monthly | From $100/month; 5x or 20x Plus rate limits. |
| Business | $20 / monthly | Per user, 2+ users billed annually ($25 billed monthly); no training on business data by default. |
| Enterprise & Edu | Custom | Contact sales. |
| API key | Custom | Pay per API usage at standard rates. |
Recent changes
- 21 Aug 2026
A post attributed to Tibo (@thsottiaux, OpenAI) said Codex hit 20M active users (activity window not stated), relayed on the OpenAI developer forum. source
- 16 Jul 2026
Reported bug: GPT-5.6 in full-access mode deleting $HOME. source
- 18 Jun 2026
Users report a ~10-20x jump in rate-limit cost per token on Plus (issue #28879). source
- 2 Jun 2026
OpenAI reports more than 5 million weekly active Codex users and positions Codex for knowledge work beyond coding. source
- 14 Apr 2026
Critical advisory CVE-2025-61260 published for Codex CLI MCP configuration handling. source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Coding agents.
OpenCodeAnomaly75
Claude CodeAnthropic73
Zed (Agent Panel)Zed Industries73
GitHub CopilotGitHub (Microsoft)72
Grok BuildSpaceXAI (formerly xAI)68
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.