Codex vs Devin: How They Actually Differ
Codex fits a solo founder who wants one agent across a local terminal, IDE, and GitHub PR reviews on a free-to-Pro price ladder. Devin fits a team that prefers to hand whole tasks to a managed cloud sandbox and is willing to pay premium pay-per-ACU pricing.
Compiled 2026-08-26 from our catalogue entries for Codex and Devin.
The short answer
- Pick Codex if
- You want one agent that travels between CLI, IDE, desktop, and cloud, with GitHub pull request code review, on OpenAI's GPT models and a price ladder that starts at Free ($0/month) and goes up through Pro.
- Pick Devin if
- You'd rather hand whole long-horizon tasks (research, plan, code, test, PR) to a managed cloud sandbox, take tasks in via Slack or Linear, and accept higher pay-per-ACU costs.
- Cheapest way in
- Codex's Free plan at $0/month. Devin's starting price is not recorded on the sheet we have on file.
- What we could not compare
- Devin's verified plans, public repo, and platforms beyond web are all listed as not recorded; we have no pricing ladder to put next to Codex's tier list, and we couldn't compare model choice, docs, or repo presence.
Both Codex and Devin sit in the AI Coding Agents category, but they address different parts of the job. Codex is OpenAI's agent — the same agent on terminal, IDE, desktop, and cloud surfaces, with cloud code review on GitHub pull requests. Devin is Cognition's autonomous software engineer — a managed cloud sandbox with browser, terminal, and editor built to take whole tasks in a single run.
For a solo founder or a small team choosing this week, the call is about where you want the work to live. Codex keeps work on a local surface and ships a published price ladder from free up through Pro. Devin hands whole tickets to a remote sandbox and bills pay-per-ACU, which the sheet flags as the highest-cost option in its category.
Side by side
Every cell is a field on our catalogue entry for that tool, copied as recorded. Rows where the two differ come first; blank fields say so rather than being filled in.
| Codex | Devin | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid |
| Starts at | Free — $0 /month | Not recorded |
| Runs on | web, mac, win, linux, cli, vscode-ext | web |
| Category | AI Coding Agents | AI Coding Agents |
| Public source code | No public repo listed | No public repo listed |
| Public docs | Not listed | Not listed |
- Public source code: From the repository link on each catalogue entry, not a licence audit.
Where Codex is the better fit
- Same agent across CLI, IDE, desktop, and cloud; work started on one surface can move to another.
- Cloud code review on a GitHub pull request that comments inline and proposes fixes.
- Reads the shared AGENTS.md instructions file and supports MCP tools; included with ChatGPT plans from the free tier up through Pro.
Where Devin is the better fit
- Fully managed cloud sandbox with browser, terminal, and editor — no local setup required.
- Long-horizon tasks — research, planning, code, test, and PR — in a single run.
- Slack and Linear integrations let non-engineers file tasks directly.
Which one should you pick?
Free plan is $0/month, runs on mac, win, and linux, and works in CLI and a VS Code extension, so you don't need to hand work off to a cloud sandbox.
The managed cloud sandbox takes research, plan, code, test, and PR in one run, with Slack and Linear intake for non-engineers filing the work.
The sheet locks Codex to OpenAI's GPT models out of the box, and Devin's model choice is not recorded on file.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Codex use Claude or Gemini models?
- Not according to the sheet — Codex is locked to OpenAI's GPT models out of the box.
- Can Devin run on my own laptop?
- No — the sheet describes it as entirely cloud-hosted and closed source, and calls it not suitable for air-gapped work.
- What's the cheapest way to try Codex?
- The Free plan at $0/month. After that, Go at $8/month and Plus at $20/month are on file; higher tiers listed are Pro 5x at $100/month and Pro 20x at $200/month.
- Can non-engineers send work to Devin?
- Yes — Slack and Linear integrations are on file so non-engineers can file tasks without driving an editor.
What we compared
This page states nothing that is not in the two catalogue entries below. The exact text used to write it is reproduced here so you can check our reading, and both tools link through to their own pages and to the vendor.
- /tools/codex — checked 2026-07-02 · official site
- /tools/devin — checked 2026-08-21 · official site
Show the source text
## Codex (/tools/codex) Tagline: OpenAI's coding agent — works in the terminal, IDE, and cloud, reviews GitHub pull requests, and runs on GPT-5 models. Category: AI Coding Agents Pricing model: freemium Starts at: Free — $0 /month Platforms: web, mac, win, linux, cli, vscode-ext Public repo: none listed Docs: none listed Verified plans (read 2026-08-21): Free $0 /month | Go $8 /month | Plus $20 /month | Pro 5x $100 /month | Pro 20x $200 /month | Business / Enterprise Not published | API Key Pay only for the tokens Codex uses, based on API pricing Strengths on file: Runs one agent across CLI, IDE, desktop, and cloud — work moves between surfaces.; Strong GitHub integration: a cloud code review on a pull request that catches real bugs and proposes fixes.; Reads the shared AGENTS.md standard and supports MCP tools.; Included with ChatGPT plans, from the free tier up through Pro. Limits on file: Locked to OpenAI's GPT models — no Claude or Gemini out of the box.; Fewer built-in customization primitives (hooks, sub-agents) than some rivals. Codex is OpenAI's agentic coding tool. It runs the same agent across a terminal CLI, an IDE extension, a desktop app, and a cloud environment, so work started in one surface can continue in another. It reads the shared AGENTS.md instructions file, speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and can spin up a cloud code review on a GitHub pull request that comments inline and proposes fixes. Codex runs on OpenAI's GPT models — currently GPT-5.5 as the recommended frontier model — and is included with ChatGPT plans, from the free tier up through Pro. ## Devin (/tools/devin) Tagline: Cognition's autonomous software engineer — runs tasks in a managed cloud sandbox with browser, terminal, and editor. Category: AI Coding Agents Pricing model: paid Starts at: Not recorded Platforms: web Public repo: none listed Docs: none listed Verified plans: none on file Strengths on file: Fully managed cloud environment — no local setup required.; Long-horizon tasks: research, planning, code, test, and PR in a single run.; Slack and Linear integrations let non-engineers file tasks. Limits on file: Highest-cost option in the category — pay-per-ACU pricing.; Closed source and entirely cloud-hosted; not suitable for air-gapped work. Devin is Cognition's autonomous software engineer — it runs tasks in a managed cloud sandbox with its own browser, terminal, and editor. Its pitch is autonomy at length: a fully managed cloud environment with no local setup that takes long-horizon tasks — research, planning, code, test, and PR — in a single run, with Slack and Linear integrations so non-engineers can file work. It suits teams that want to hand off whole tasks rather than drive an editor. The trade-offs are real: it's the highest-cost option in the category, priced pay-per-ACU, and it's closed source and entirely cloud-hosted — not an option for air-gapped work. It's the managed, hands-off end of the spectrum, where OpenHands offers a self-hostable open alternative.
Change log
- 2026-08-26 — First published, compiled from the catalogue entries for Codex and Devin.