# Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex (slim)

> OpenAI Codex scores 73 (BB) to Agent Zero's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.md (~2,600 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-12

OpenAI Codex scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- Agent Zero: C 54.2, rank #709 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.min.md
- OpenAI Codex: BB 73, rank #95 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.min.md
- Agent Zero, good for A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory. Also No key needed to call it.
- OpenAI Codex, good for Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 90 against 64; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 62; Security & auth, 82 against 54; Maintenance & community, 87 against 75; Transparency & trust, 79 against 55. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Agent Zero | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 64 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 62 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 54 | 82 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 55 | 79 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Agent Zero | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | OpenAI |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 19k stars | 126k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |