Amp vs OpenAI Codex (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular terminal coding agents. Here is how Amp and OpenAI Codex stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Amp

Frontier coding agent for the terminal and editor, from the makers of Sourcegraph

8.2 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

Strong results on hard, multi-step tasks
Shared threads for team review
Subagents and AGENTS.md built in

Cons

Usage-based costs add up on large tasks
Fewer configuration knobs by design

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OpenAI Codex

OpenAI's coding agent for the terminal, IDE and cloud, included with ChatGPT plans

9.1 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $8/mo

Pros

Included with ChatGPT plans you may already pay for
Open-source CLI plus cloud tasks that open pull requests
Reads AGENTS.md, the cross-tool instructions file

Cons

Fewer extension points than Claude Code (no plugin marketplace)
Usage limits depend on your ChatGPT plan

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Amp vs OpenAI Codex at a glance

	Amp	OpenAI Codex
Editor score	8.2 / 10	9.1 / 10
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starting price	$20/mo	$8/mo
Reader upvotes	0	1
Best for	terminal, agent	terminal, agent, openai
Agent Skills support	Yes	Yes
Subagents support	Yes	Yes
MCP support	Yes	Yes
AGENTS.md support	Yes	Yes
Plugins support	Yes	No
Hooks support	No	No
Rules support	No	No
Agent skills in this directory	47	58
Subagents & agents in this directory	9	43
MCP servers in this directory	72	74

Our pick

OpenAI Codex edges it with a score of 9.1 versus 8.2. OpenAI Codex is the better fit if you value: included with chatgpt plans you may already pay for, open-source cli plus cloud tasks that open pull requests. Choose Amp instead if you need: strong results on hard, multi-step tasks, shared threads for team review.