# OpenAI Codex vs Qwen Code (slim)

> OpenAI Codex and Qwen Code score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 73 (BB) and 72.4 (BB). Qwen Code leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do agent harness. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-qwen-code.md (~2,400 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-qwen-code.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-qwen-code
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

OpenAI Codex and Qwen Code score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 73 (BB) and 72.4 (BB). Qwen Code leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do agent harness.

- OpenAI Codex: BB 73, rank #78 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.min.md
- Qwen Code: BB 72.4, rank #88 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.min.md
- OpenAI Codex, good for Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent. Ahead on Security & auth, 82 against 53; Transparency & trust, 79 against 63.
- Qwen Code, good for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs. Ahead on Reliability, 69 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 80.

| Category | OpenAI Codex | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 69 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 90 | 91 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 82 | 53 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 87 | 88 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 79 | 63 |

| Fact (where they differ) | OpenAI Codex | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 126k stars | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |