Pricing
Is Codex Free? (2026) Codex on Free, Plus and Pro
Is ChatGPT Codex free? Free gets limited desktop Codex; Plus and Pro include more. Student credits, VS Code, and why no plan is unlimited.
9 min read
Checked Oct 31, 2026 on OpenAI’s Codex pricing and help pages; other dates are under Sources. No affiliate links on this page (how we work).
Is ChatGPT Codex free?
As of Oct 31, 2026, yes, in the narrowest sense. ChatGPT Free includes Codex, but only GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, “subject to rollout”, with no Codex Cloud and no published limit. The moment you want the CLI, the IDE extension, cloud tasks or the new GPT-6.1 Terra on a ChatGPT sign-in, you’re paying at least $20 a month for Plus. And no plan is unlimited (Codex pricing, verified Oct 31, 2026).
Quick answer
- Is Codex free? Free gets “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout”. That’s it.
- Is Codex free with ChatGPT Plus? It’s included in the $20 a month, with the web, CLI, IDE extension, iOS and GPT-6.1 Terra. Not extra, but not free either.
- Is Codex free for students? No, but verified US and Canadian university students can claim $100 in Codex credits.
- Is Codex free in VS Code? No separate extension price, but Free and Go don’t list the IDE extension. You need Plus or an API key.
- Is Codex unlimited? No. Every plan has usage limits, and even Pro’s “no five-hour limit” comes with “currently”.
What each plan gets
| Plan | Codex access | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free ($0) | Desktop, GPT-6 Luna | Not published |
| Go ($8) | Desktop, GPT-6 Luna | Not published |
| Plus ($20) | Web, CLI, IDE, iOS, cloud, Terra | Terra 35–285/5h |
| Pro ($100+) | Everything in Plus | No 5-hour cap (currently) |
| API key | CLI, SDK, IDE | Pay per token |
Sources: Codex pricing, verified Oct 31, 2026, and ChatGPT pricing, verified Oct 30, 2026. Plus limit is OpenAI’s estimate of local GPT-6.1 Terra messages per five hours, “not fixed message limits”. Full prices and the yearly question: Codex pricing.
Codex on ChatGPT Free
The help center says: “Codex is included across ChatGPT plans, including Free and Go.” It follows that straight away with the fine print: “Codex Cloud is available to eligible Plus, all Pro tiers, Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Education accounts, subject to rollout and workspace settings. It is not included with Free or Go.” (help article, verified Oct 31, 2026)
What Free actually gets, from three OpenAI pages:
- Codex pricing: “GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout”. (verified Oct 31, 2026)
- ChatGPT pricing grid: Codex “Limited” on Free, and the Free card lists “Limited Codex access”. The older GPT-5.6 Terra shows “Limited access in Work and Codex on desktop” (verified Oct 26, 2026).
- No GPT-6.1 Terra: OpenAI lists the new Terra “in Work and Codex on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans”. Free and Go aren’t on that list (verified Oct 31, 2026).
How limited is “Limited”? Not published. OpenAI’s message estimates cover only Plus and Standard Business. For Free there’s no number at all. When the desktop app tells you you’re out, here’s what it means: Codex “You’ve hit your usage limit”.
Go ($8) doesn’t change the Codex story. Its Codex line matches Free’s word for word. Go also “may include ads” (ChatGPT pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026).
A Go plan that costs money but lists the exact same Codex line as Free is a weird ladder rung. If you’re a developer, it’s $8 a month for nothing new on the coding side. Skip it and save up for Plus.
Included with Plus and Pro: what “included” means
“Is Codex free with ChatGPT Plus” is the top autocomplete for a reason. OpenAI’s line: “ChatGPT Work and Codex are included in your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan” (Codex pricing, verified Oct 31, 2026).
Is Codex free with ChatGPT Plus?
No extra charge, but it’s part of what the $20 a month buys. Plus gets Codex on every surface, with five-hour usage estimates and possible weekly limits. When you run out, you buy credits or wait.
On Plus, “included” means (verified Oct 31, 2026):
- “Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension, and on iOS”
- “Cloud-based integrations like automatic code review and Slack integration”
- GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna on the Plus card, plus GPT-6.1 Terra, which the feature table lists for Plus
- “Flexibly extend usage with ChatGPT credits”
On Pro ($100, $200 or $500 a month), it’s “Everything in Plus”, with “Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit” and Ultrafast mode on Pro $500 only (verified Oct 31, 2026). Compare: Codex Pro vs Plus.
The other thing “included” means: shared. “ChatGPT Work and Codex share usage”, and the help center lists Codex, ChatGPT Work, Excel and workspace agents drawing on the same pool (verified Oct 31, 2026). A heavy Excel afternoon eats into the same allowance as your coding.
Is Codex free now?
The free answer is unchanged as of Oct 31, 2026. Three paid-side things did:
- Oct 26, 2026: OpenAI launched GPT-6.1 Terra. The launch post says “Starting today, GPT-6.1 Terra is available to all Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex”, and the Codex pricing page adds Business. OpenAI says “Overall Work and Codex plan limits are unchanged” (launch post, verified Oct 28, 2026; Codex pricing, verified Oct 31, 2026).
- Oct 29, 2026: grandfathered Pro 200 subscribers kept the older, bigger allowance only through this date. After it, they get the lower allowance at the same $200 (Pro help, verified Oct 29, 2026).
- Oct 30, 2026: OpenAI’s Business help lists a Premium seat at $125 per user monthly or $100 annual, with “no five-hour usage limit” (Business help, verified Oct 30, 2026). Nowhere near free. Breakdown: Codex Plus vs Business.
Free and Go still list the same single line: GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, subject to rollout.
Is Codex free in VS Code?
The Codex IDE extension page lists VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code Insiders, Xcode and JetBrains IDEs, and the steps are “Install or enable Codex, sign in” (Codex IDE docs, verified Oct 26, 2026). OpenAI prints no price for the extension itself. What matters is what you sign in with:
- ChatGPT Free or Go: the Codex pricing page lists only “the desktop app” for these plans, not the IDE extension. Don’t count on VS Code access here.
- Plus or Pro: the IDE extension is explicitly included, and the help center counts it under “Codex Local”, which “covers the CLI, IDE extension, and desktop workflows”. (help article, verified Oct 26, 2026).
- API key: “Codex in the CLI, SDK, or IDE extension”, with “Pay for Codex usage based on API pricing”. No cloud features.
The help center also says “the Codex VS Code extension is compatible with most VS Code forks” (verified Oct 31, 2026). So installing it costs nothing, but using it means a paid plan or API tokens.
Is Codex free for students?
There’s no free student plan, but there is a published credit offer. “Verified university students in the United States and Canada can claim $100 in ChatGPT credits to use in Codex. One offer per student”. The grant is “2,500 credits, which is equivalent to $100”, expires after 12 months, isn’t API credit, and needs a ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus or Pro account (OpenAI students page, verified Oct 21, 2026).
Outside the US and Canada, OpenAI publishes no student offer for Codex. ChatGPT Edu (for universities) and the free plan for verified US K–12 teachers aren’t Codex deals for individual students (ChatGPT pricing, verified Oct 26, 2026).
How credits burn, and what happens when they run out: Codex credits.
Is Codex unlimited?
No plan is unlimited. On Plus and Standard Business, OpenAI publishes estimates per five hours, from 5–45 local messages on GPT-6 Astra, through 35–285 on GPT-6.1 Terra, to 350–3,000 on GPT-6 Luna, and “Weekly limits may also apply”. Pro “currently” has no five-hour limit, and OpenAI never says Pro is free of weekly limits. OpenAI also says “These estimates are not fixed message limits” (Codex pricing, verified Oct 31, 2026).
At the cap: buy credits on Plus or Pro, use an API key, or wait for the reset. And per the help center, “Starting a new chat does not reset your usage limits” (verified Oct 31, 2026). How resets work and where to check what you have left: Codex usage limits.
Codex vs Claude Code on “free”
At $0, Codex wins by default: “The free claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code access” (verified Oct 24, 2026). Details in Is Claude Code free?, and the full field is in AI coding tools compared.
Here’s what I’d do
Curious: start on Free in the desktop app. It’s real Codex on GPT-6 Luna, just small.
Want it in VS Code or the terminal: go to Plus ($20). Skip Go.
US or Canadian university student: claim the $100 in credits before paying for anything.
CI or scripts only: an API key, billed per token.
On a budget? ChatGPT Go vs Plus explains what Codex access each plan includes, and Cursor Pro vs Codex on Plus compares the two $20 coding options.
Hitting “stream disconnected before completion”? See Codex “stream disconnected” error.
Scripting Codex in a pipeline? Codex CLI “stdin is not a terminal” shows the non-interactive way to run it.
If a Codex cloud task won’t start at all, the Codex “Error creating task” timeout fix covers environment setup and outages.
Free or paid, Codex can still refuse a model as at capacity: Codex selected model is at capacity.
FAQ
Is ChatGPT Codex free? Yes in a limited way, since ChatGPT Free includes GPT-6 Luna in the Codex desktop app, subject to rollout, but the CLI, IDE extension and cloud need Plus or above.
Is Codex free with ChatGPT Plus? Codex is included in the $20-a-month Plus plan at no extra charge, with usage limits.
Is Codex free for Plus users? Plus users pay nothing extra for Codex, including GPT-6.1 Terra, but usage comes from the plan’s shared limits and extra usage needs credits.
Is Codex free and unlimited? No, Free has a small unpublished limit and every paid plan has usage limits too.
Is Codex free for students? There’s no free student plan, but verified university students in the US and Canada can claim $100 in ChatGPT credits for Codex, valid 12 months.
Is Codex free in VS Code? OpenAI lists no separate extension price, but Free and Go list only the desktop app, so VS Code use needs Plus or above or an API key.
Does ChatGPT Free include Codex? Yes, Free gets GPT-6 Luna in the desktop app, subject to rollout, with no Codex Cloud and no published limit.
Is Codex unlimited? No, every plan has usage limits, and OpenAI describes Pro’s lack of a five-hour limit as current.
Sources
- OpenAI, Codex pricing (plan lines, estimates, Terra availability): https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing (verified 2026-10-31)
- OpenAI Help Center, Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan (availability, Codex Local, shared pool, VS Code forks): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11369540-using-codex-with-your-chatgpt-plan (verified 2026-10-31)
- ChatGPT pricing (Codex grid, Go ads, Edu and K–12 FAQ): https://chatgpt.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-26; plan prices verified 2026-10-30)
- OpenAI, Introducing GPT-6.1 Terra (launch, plans): https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-1-terra (verified 2026-10-28)
- OpenAI Help Center, About ChatGPT Pro plans (Pro 200 grandfathering through Oct 29, 2026): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9793128-about-chatgpt-pro-plans (verified 2026-10-29)
- OpenAI Help Center, What is ChatGPT Business (Premium seat $125/$100): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8792828-what-is-chatgpt-business (verified 2026-10-30)
- OpenAI, Codex IDE extension: https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide (verified 2026-10-26)
- OpenAI, Codex for students: https://developers.openai.com/community/students (verified 2026-10-21)
- Claude Code setup (Free plan excludes Claude Code): https://code.claude.com/docs/en/setup (verified 2026-10-24)