# Codex vs OpenBB (slim)

> Codex scores 75.4 (BB) to OpenBB's 59.8 (C) for crypto market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-openbb.md (~5,250 tokens) · this version ~3,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-openbb.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-openbb
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Codex scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenBB's 59.8 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. OpenBB leads on transparency & trust. Both do crypto market data.

- Codex: BB 75.4, rank #64 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/codex-graphql.min.md
- OpenBB: C 59.8, rank #676 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openbb.min.md
- Codex, good for On-chain token prices, charts, holders, wallet PnL, launchpad streams and Polymarket and Kalshi data for trading agents and crypto apps. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 68; Schema & documentation, 91 against 73; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 63; Payments & pricing, 80 against 60; Maintenance & community, 80 against 52. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- OpenBB, good for Agents that need free macro, regulatory and exchange data (FRED, BLS, IMF, OECD, ECB, SEC filings, Treasury, Cboe options, Deribit crypto derivatives) behind one MCP server the owner runs. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 68 against 59. Also No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card; Open source.

| Category | Codex | OpenBB |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 85 | 68 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 91 | 73 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 79 | 63 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 49 | 46 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 80 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 80 | 52 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 59 | 68 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Codex | OpenBB |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Codex Data Inc. | OpenBB Inc. (code stewarded by OpenBQ) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://graph.codex.io/graphql` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Codex Data Inc.'s terms of service. The TypeScript SDK is MIT | Apache-2.0 for version 5 and later (29 September 2026); earlier releases are AGPL-3.0-only. Data returned by providers is under each source's own terms |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-29 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 75k npm/wk | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Codex +28: Codex 80 (Closed service. Newest changelog entry 2 November 2026 (30). Weekly entries from 3 August to 2 November, and SDK releases 2.5.10 to 2.5.20 between 28 October and 5 November (20). Public changelog, a Discord, a support address and a status page with a report link; GitHub issue replies were not sampled (10 of 15). Current official TypeScript SDK, no other languages (12 of 15). The SDK repository runs lint and test on pull requests and a release workflow (8 of 10). 30+20+10+12+8 = 80.); OpenBB 52 (openbb 5.0.0 was tagged on 29 September 2026, 35 days before this check, with openbb-core 2.0.1 and openbb-mcp-server 2.0.1 tagged on 28 September, and no package was tagged or version-bumped on main since, read from a clone on 3 November 2026. PyPI didn't resolve from our session, so a release published there without a tag would be unseen (20). All the tagged releases in the 90 days are one release train, 27 to 29 September (openbb-mcp-server 2.0.0 and 2.0.1, openbb-core 2.0.0 and 2.0.1, openbb 5.0.0 and the providers). Fixes merged since then are unreleased, so 12 of 20 rather than 20. The issue tracker couldn't be read. Pull requests from outside contributors were merged on 17, 18 and 24 October 2026, but two accounts (dlee-bq and Danglewood) wrote 10 of the 14 commits since 5 August, and the company behind them has wound down, with OpenBQ saying it hired a third of the team (12 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry, searched again on 3 November (0). Lock files updated on 2 and 17 October and on 1 November (patched certifi, filelock, Pillow and fastmcp, unreleased), a fix for FastAPI 0.155.0 on 24 October, and CodeQL, with the CI state unconfirmed (8 of 10). Total 52.)
- Payments & pricing, Codex +20: Codex 80 (MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) on every query endpoint, paid in USDC on Tempo; subscriptions and webhooks are not covered, and it is not x402 (35 of 40). $0.001 a query through MPP, compute-unit costs per operation, and Growth at $120 per million compute units, all public (20). The Almost free plan's 10,000 compute units need a one-time $1 activation fee by card or 1 USDC, which the terms say confirms a payment method (5 of 20). An agent can pay per query with no account or key (20). 35+20+5+20 = 80.); OpenBB 60 (Read with the self-hosted rule. ODP is free under Apache-2.0 and needs no signup of its own, so 20 + 20 + 20. FRED and the EIA need a free key that a person registers for at the agency; the other 15 provider packages work without one. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The Workspace editions on openbb.co/pricing are a separate hosted product and are not graded. Total 60.)
- Schema & documentation, Codex +18: Codex 91 (The full GraphQL schema, 18,159 lines, is in the MIT SDK repository at src/resources/schema.graphql, updated on 5 November 2026, and introspection is free (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Reference pages give a one-line purpose per operation, and the API reference intro, the queries-versus-subscriptions page and llms.txt say which operation to use for which job and to batch rather than loop (13 of 20). GraphQL types with enums, input objects and non-null markers, and documented maxima per argument (14 of 15). Examples on every recipe and reference page, and an error table with code, HTTP status, meaning and retry advice (14 of 15). Weekly dated changelog from 26 August 2024 to 2 November 2026 with RSS and dated deprecations (15). 25+10+13+14+14+15 = 91.); OpenBB 73 (Read on the MCP server, with the REST API noted. Tools are generated from typed FastAPI routes, so every command tool has a JSON Schema input, and output schemas are declared, including for chart artifacts. The REST launcher serves an OpenAPI document. Read from the source and docs, since we run no vendor software (23 of 25). docs.openbb.co/llms.txt answered 404. The server ships five SKILL.md guides as MCP resources and the docs and README are Markdown (5 of 10). Tool descriptions come from each command's docstring and stop before the parameter documentation unless `describe_responses` is set. They say what the command returns but rarely when not to use it; the skills cover how to work with the server (12 of 20). Inputs carry enums from provider choices, values per provider are listed in descriptions where providers differ, and required arguments are marked, but `run_pipeline` steps and `install_skill` files are free objects (11 of 15). Examples on every reference page, and an errors page with REST status codes and Python exception prefixes (14 of 15). Package versions and release tags, a migration guide and versioned V4 docs, but no changelog file and the GitHub release notes weren't readable (8 of 15). Total 73.)
- Reliability, Codex +17: Codex 85 (Hosted lines. Status page at status.codex.io (incident.io) with API, Dashboard and 25 network components and a history page (20). The history from 8 August to 6 November lists an elevated-latency incident on 11 August (balances queries, 42 minutes, labelled degraded performance), a 5xx spike the same day, degraded filterTokens on 12 August, and network delays on Robinhood, BNB, Cronos, Fogo and Solana pricing in late August and September, with none in October or November. All read as partial or degraded, so minor only (20). Per-plan rate limits (5 a second free, 300 on Growth with a 500 burst) and per-request maxima are published (15). 429 TOO_MANY_REQUESTS carries `retryAfterSeconds` and `Retry-After`, OVER_CAPACITY says to wait 30 seconds, and the errors page says which codes to retry; writes are limited to webhook and token mutations (15). The pricing page shows '99.9% Uptime SLA' as a headline figure and custom SLAs on Enterprise, with no SLA document found (5 of 10). The API is generally available (10). 20+20+15+15+5+10 = 85.); OpenBB 68 (Read with the local-software lines, since the owner runs the MCP server and REST launcher on their own machine. The docs give `pip install openbb` and per-package installs with Python 3.10 to 3.14 stated, and the repository has a publish workflow per package. PyPI answered with a bot check, so the published versions weren't read there (18 of 20). Test workflows run on pull requests for openbb-core (Python 3.10 to 3.14 on Linux, 3.10 and 3.14 on macOS and Windows), the MCP server and each provider, with CodeQL beside them. The Actions pages couldn't be read, so whether the default branch passes is unconfirmed (15 of 25). The issue tracker couldn't be read. The git history shows bug fixes merged on 12, 16, 17, 18 and 24 October 2026, including fixes from outside contributors and one for issue #7672, so 8 of 25 on that evidence alone. Version 5 is a new major version with a migration guide that lists the removed providers and changed paths, but there is no changelog file and the release notes weren't readable (12 of 15). openbb 5.0.0, openbb-core 2.0.1 and openbb-mcp-server 2.0.1 (15). No package was released after 29 September, and main dropped Python 3.10 on 1 November (unreleased). Total 68.)
- Agent ergonomics, Codex +16: Codex 79 (GraphQL field selection, so a response holds only the fields asked for, and `usageData` reports the cost of a request (23 of 25). `limit` on filter queries up to 200, rankings and 100+ filter signals on filterTokens; some list arguments drop extra inputs silently rather than failing (18 of 20). Coded errors an agent can branch on, but most arrive as HTTP 200 in an `errors` array, and an inline input type mismatch returns only a message (16 of 20). Queries are reads and identical requests cost the same; errors are not billed except NOT_FOUND. No idempotency key on the webhook and token mutations (14 of 20). Few required arguments beyond `networkId`. One official SDK, TypeScript (8 of 15). 23+18+16+14+8 = 79.); OpenBB 63 (Read on the MCP server. With tool discovery off, the default, a full install registers one tool per command, hundreds of them (about 690 router commands across the provider packages by our count, and the quickstart itself says "hundreds of tools") (5). `--tool-discovery` swaps them for four discovery tools and `--allowed-categories` keeps other categories unregistered, so back up 10 (15 of 25). Commands take `limit`, `start_date` and `end_date` where the source allows, `list_page_size` pages MCP list responses, and `run_pipeline` keeps intermediate rows on the server, but there is no general cap on response size (14 of 20). REST errors map to documented codes with the message under `detail`, validation errors list each failing argument, and `mask_error_details` hides internals. An empty result is a 204 with no body, which an agent can mistake for success (16 of 20). The data commands are GET reads and safe to retry, but no tool declares readOnlyHint, destructiveHint or idempotentHint, and `install_skill`, which writes files, carries no annotation (8 of 20). Runs with no arguments and most providers need no key, but the only SDK is Python, beside the CLI and the REST API (10 of 15). Total 63.)
- Transparency & trust, OpenBB +9: Codex 59 (Closed service under terms that name Codex Data Inc., last updated 29 October 2026; the SDK is MIT (15 of 30). The privacy policy (effective 29 September 2026) is general, keeps data 'only for as long as is necessary' with no periods, transfers data to the United States, and links no DPA or subprocessor list (10 of 30). The changelog dates deprecations, such as NFT endpoints removed on 31 March 2026 and the transactions fields deprecated on 2 November, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (12 of 20). The terms name Mixpanel, Rollbar and Sentry and the privacy policy says data is processed in the United States; no fuller subprocessor list found (8 of 20). 15+10+12+8 = 45.); OpenBB 68 (The editorial half. Apache-2.0 for every package since version 5, with the licence FAQ explaining the change from AGPL-3.0-only (30). Local software that sends requests only to the configured data sources. The docs say OpenBB hosts no data and that each source's terms govern what is returned, and the licence FAQ repeats it. The privacy policy (effective 1 October 2024) and terms (effective 8 July 2026) cover OpenBB's hosted services, not ODP. Nasdaq data comes from its public website and TMX data is marked unofficial, with no word on whether those sites allow it (18 of 30). The data providers FAQ, re-read on 3 November 2026, still says V5 has seventeen provider packages and that the V4 providers were removed. A documented deprecation mechanism with since and removal versions, and V4 docs kept online, but V5 removed 15 providers in one release with no deprecation cycle found, and the hosted Workspace's end came with no published date ("Existing customers and users of the hosted products will hear from us directly about timelines") (10 of 20). No telemetry or analytics code in openbb-core, openbb-mcp-server or openbb-cli at the 24 October 2026 commit, though the docs don't say so (16 of 20). Total 74.)
