Is Codex free? Partly. Codex pricing, plan by plan

Partly. OpenAI includes Codex in every ChatGPT plan, the free one too, but on ChatGPT Free and Go you only get it in the ChatGPT desktop app, for quick or lightweight coding tasks, “subject to rollout”. The Codex CLI, the IDE extension and Codex on the web start with ChatGPT Plus, at $20 a month in the US. Without a plan, an OpenAI API key runs the CLI at API rates. All of this is from OpenAI’s Codex pricing page, checked on October 5, 2026.

I pay for ChatGPT Pro and have used Codex heavily for about four months, mostly to review what Claude Code builds. This is the plain version: what each plan includes, how the limits work, and what you can do without paying.

Codex pricing by plan

On Free and Go, OpenAI lists one model for Codex, GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed. Plus adds GPT-6.1 Sol, cloud features such as automatic code review on GitHub and the Slack integration, and the option to buy ChatGPT credits when you run out. OpenAI’s line for Pro is “Choose the Pro plan that fits your usage”, and only Pro $500 gets Astra Ultrafast.

Codex doesn’t cost extra on any of these plans. The pricing page puts it in one line: “ChatGPT Work and Codex are included in your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan.”

Codex usage limits: how they work

Codex usage is shared with ChatGPT Work, and there’s no fixed number of messages. OpenAI says the count depends on the model, the size of the task and whether it runs on your computer or in the cloud. Cloud tasks can use more of your allowance than local ones, and weekly limits may apply on top.

For Plus, OpenAI gives estimates per five-hour period. They’re ranges, not promises:

Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit. To see where you stand, the CLI has /status inside a session, and the ChatGPT usage dashboard shows your limits and reset times.

When you run out, OpenAI lets the turn already in progress finish. After that, Plus and Pro can buy ChatGPT credits, and on any plan you can keep working locally with an API key at API rates. Or you wait for the reset. Business, Edu and Enterprise plans with flexible pricing can buy workspace credits.

From my side: on intense days, many hours in a row, I hit the weekly limit even on Pro. When that happens I switch to Claude Code on my Claude plan. OpenAI describes Plus as “a few focused coding sessions each week”, and I’d take that at its word: it’s enough to find out whether Codex suits you, not for a full working day of agent sessions.

What you can do without paying

Codex on ChatGPT Free. Install the ChatGPT desktop app (macOS, Windows or Linux), sign in with a free account and pick Codex. OpenAI says it’s still rolling out, so you may not see it yet, and Free doesn’t include image generation. You can’t use the CLI or the IDE extension this way.

The open-source CLI with an API key. The Codex CLI is open source under the Apache 2.0 license (openai/codex), so installing it costs nothing. Using it without a ChatGPT plan means an API key from the OpenAI dashboard:

printenv OPENAI_API_KEY | codex login --with-api-key

That isn’t free either: OpenAI bills it to your Platform account at standard API rates, and features that need a ChatGPT workspace or the cloud are limited or missing (authentication docs). OpenAI recommends it for CI and other automation. I haven’t compared what a normal week costs this way against Plus, so I can’t tell you which is cheaper for you.

Codex for Open Source. If you maintain a widely used open-source project, OpenAI lets you apply for API credits, ChatGPT Pro with Codex and selective access to Codex Security (Codex open source). It’s an application, not a free tier.

If you’d rather compare with the other side, Claude Code has no free tier at all: it needs Claude Pro or higher, or a Console account at API rates. The details are in Is Claude Code free?.

Is Codex worth paying for?

For me, yes, but for a specific job. Claude Code builds most of my work; Codex reads Claude’s plans and diffs, read-only, and finds the cases nobody planned for: concurrency, ordering, permissions. That’s where I get the most value from ChatGPT Pro, and I wrote up why in Codex vs Claude Code.

If you already pay for Plus, you already have the CLI, the IDE extension and the web: try it on a real task before paying for anything else. If you’re on Free, the desktop app is a way to see how Codex works, but it isn’t the setup most people mean when they say “Codex in the terminal”. For that you need Plus, and then installing the CLI and signing in takes a few minutes.

Where Plyloft fits

Plyloft runs the official codex and claude command-line tools in real terminals on your computer, on a plan you already pay for: ChatGPT Plus or higher, or Claude Pro or higher. ChatGPT Free and Go don’t include the Codex CLI, so Codex on those plans doesn’t work with Plyloft. One plan is enough: with only ChatGPT, the reviewer is a second Codex session, and the card says so.

It doesn’t include any AI usage and never asks for an API key, so the limits above are still the ones that count, and it doesn’t change them. Its server never receives your code, your prompts or your file names. If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, or higher, download Plyloft and try the Free plan.