We are not publishing a free-tier verdict for either Claude Code or OpenAI Codex. Tier "Paid" is no free offer at all. Tier "Freemium" is a paid product with a trial-shaped entry point, not a stated free tier.
Agentic coding tool by Anthropic — terminal-based AI coding agent that reads/writes files, runs commands, and manages git workflows. Available to Claude Pro ($20/mo), Team ($25/seat/mo), and Max ($100-200/mo) subscribers. Uses Claude Sonnet/Opus models. Also available via Anthropic API with usage-based pricing. Free tier via Claude.ai (limited Sonnet usage, Projects, Artifacts). April 2026 changes: (1) Third-party tool restrictions — external tools like OpenClaw now billed separately on pay-as-you-go basis, can no longer apply standard usage limits. (2) Extra usage option — all paid plans (Pro, Max 5x, Max 20x) now have pay-as-you-go overage at standard API rates beyond included usage. (3) Peak-hour throttling — 5-hour session limits reduced during weekdays 5 AM–11 AM Pacific.
Cloud-native coding agent by OpenAI. Available with a ChatGPT subscription and, separately, with an API key billed on token use; both routes are current. ChatGPT Business has two seat types, both carrying Codex: Standard at $20/user/mo billed annually ($25 monthly) and Premium at $100/user/mo billed annually ($125 monthly), where Premium buys 5x more usage than Standard and removes the five-hour usage limit. Also in ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo) and Pro (from $100/mo). Codex-only pay-as-you-go seats closed to new Business workspaces in June 2026; existing seats continue. The Codex pricing page we cite lists only the Standard seat — the Premium seat is published on OpenAI's business pricing page. $100 credit per new Codex team member (up to $500/team, limited time). 2M+ weekly users. API via codex-mini at $1.50/1M input, $6/1M output tokens.
Pricing Change History
Claude Code
restructuredeffective 2026-04-04high impact
Three material policy changes: (1) Third-party tool restrictions — external tools like OpenClaw now billed separately on pay-as-you-go, can no longer apply standard usage limits. (2) Extra usage option — all paid plans (Pro, Max 5x, Max 20x) have pay-as-you-go overage at standard API rates. (3) Peak-hour throttling (acknowledged March 31) — 5-hour session limits reduced during weekdays 5 AM–11 AM Pacific.
Switched from per-seat subscription to pay-as-you-go token-based pricing. Teams can add Codex-only seats billed on token consumption with no rate limits. ChatGPT Business price cut from $25 to $20/month (annual). $100 credit per new Codex team member (up to $500/team, limited time)
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