Copilot, Codex or Claude Code? The subscription prices are closer than the usage limits
A 1 October 2026 comparison of GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex and Claude Code shows entry prices from $8 to $20 a month, but very different usage limits. The AI coding tools buying question has moved from price to how you use them.
2 October 2026
Searches for “Codex vs Claude Code vs Copilot” keep climbing, and a comparison checked against vendor documentation on 1 October 2026 gives the clearest current picture of what each AI coding tool costs.
The headline prices
Entry plans are cheap and close together. GitHub Copilot Pro is $10 a month, OpenAI Codex starts at $8 (Go) or $20 (Plus), and Claude Code starts at $20 (Pro). At the heavy end, Copilot’s top tier is $100, while Codex Pro and Claude Max run $100 to $200.
Where they really differ
The pricing page is only half the story. Copilot now works on AI credits at $0.01 each, with $15 included on Pro and $200 on its top plan. Codex meters by model: on the Plus plan you get roughly 5 to 45 messages per five-hour window with the flagship GPT-6 Astra, but 250 to 2,000 with the lighter Luna. Claude Code uses a rolling five-hour window, which Anthropic doubled on 6 May 2026.
On performance the gap is thin. In September’s Terminal-Bench 4.0, Codex with GPT-6 Astra scored 58.2% and Claude Code with Fable 5.1 scored 57.9%.
What the comparison concludes
Its recommendation is practical: keep Copilot for in-editor flow, add Codex or Claude Code for delegated, hands-off tasks, and start from whichever subscription you already pay for.
So what
For a founder, the subscription price is the least important number here. It is a rounding error next to the cost of a build that is badly scoped or insecure. What matters is how a team uses these tools: how work is split between humans and agents, who reviews the output, and what happens when a usage limit changes mid-project, as several have this year. Ask any developer or agency which tools they use, on which plans, and who checks the code. If you want that approach applied to your own product, see our AI-assisted development service, or start a project.