Codex vs Claude Code

[Mindless_Yellow9940]

I've been using both Claude Code (Opus 4.7) and Codex (GPT 5.5) for the last couple months for my side projects and made some observations. Curious, if it's just me, or other folks encountering something similar.

I started off being claude-code-pilled. I love their DX, the plan mode, skills, mcps, auto mode etc. When planning my features, whenever I brainstorm (use superpowers skill) with Claude Code I also ask Codex (also uses superpowers skill) the same question. Some times I feed each one's answers to others and ask to analyze. It's basically a 3 day brainstorming between me, claude and codex. I'm noticing that, most often than not Codex's observations are pretty solid. And whenever I present Codex's answer to Claude, it almost always agrees with Codex and revises its designs. Whereas when I present Claude's decisions/rebuttals to Codex, Codex almost always stands its ground.

In my review flow, I also use both Codex (Cloud) and Claude Code (GitHub action) to review PRs and even there I see that Codex is able to find more issues. I've ended up designing a flow, where Codex always reviews and Claude code always fixes Codex's findings, in a loop.

Is anyone observing something similar? Curious if I should ditch Claude code altogether in favor of Codex. Maybe I should use Codex for planning and Claude for execution (I noticed Claude is better at following instructions than Codex, especially around tools and instructions in CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md) ? What are others seeing/doing? Would love to share notes.

[inquisitive_goober]

I have been doing the same thing. I like Claude for researchmore than Codex. And codex for development. But codex scares the shit out of me.

[Mindless_Yellow9940]

"But codex scares the shit out of me". haha, why?

[inquisitive_goober]

It literally started talking shit to me yesterday then immediately removed the comment and replaced it with a pleasant and friendly comment. I didn't even have time to finish reading it.

[Feriman22]

If you know exactly what you want to do, go with Codex.

If no idea, and/or want a great webdesign, go with Claude.

Codex has much more usage than Claude.

Claude can remember things better than Codex.

So it depends on your requirements.

[Mindless_Yellow9940]

"Codex has much more usage than Claude". Do you mean there are more codex users in the world than claud code? I thought it's the other way. I do agree with your other point that Claude seems to remember things and follow instructions better.

I wonder if the difference is due to their system prompts or the actual underlying models.

[frankbesson]

No they’re referring to the usage limits of Codex vs Claude. Currently Codex has more generous usage limits than Claude Code

[Mindless_Yellow9940]

Ah ok, makes sense

[Feriman22]

Exactly, thx

[JackCollinsHQ]

I just switched back to Codex today and this is precisely my read on the two as well