OpenAI Codex vs Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

The Short Answer

This comparison changed shape in 2026. On June 2, 2026, Cognition renamed Windsurf as Devin Desktop and made an Agent Command Center, a board for managing local and cloud agents, the default screen, with the full Windsurf IDE still behind it. Devin Local, rewritten in Rust, replaced Cascade as the built-in local agent, and the legacy Cascade agent was available only through July 1. Windsurf plans, pricing, settings and extensions carried over unchanged. windsurf.com now redirects to Devin's site. Windsurf is now Devin Desktop.

OpenAI Codex is still an agent-first product that runs in the ChatGPT desktop app, the Codex CLI, an IDE extension, the web, iOS and Codex Cloud. Devin Desktop can even host Codex as a third-party agent through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), so the two are no longer strictly either-or.

Choose Codex when you want an OpenAI agent that turns tasks into reviewed diffs across terminal, IDE and cloud, paid for by a ChatGPT plan you may already have. Choose Devin Desktop when you want the IDE itself as the center of your workflow, with Tab completions, a choice of frontier models from several vendors, Devin agents on your laptop and in the cloud, and a board for supervising many agents at once.

Plan details below come from OpenAI's Codex pricing page and Devin's pricing page, checked on September 30, 2026. Codex pricing, Devin pricing.

What Each Product Is Today

Codex's models are GPT-6.1 Sol, released September 29, 2026 and listed on Plus and Pro, GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra for the hardest problems, and GPT-6 Luna for light tasks. Plus and above include cloud tasks, automatic GitHub code review and Slack and Linear integrations. Codex follows repository guidance in AGENTS.md files and supports skills, plugins, MCP servers, subagents, scheduled tasks and built-in Git tools. Codex models.

Devin Desktop is a full IDE, backwards-compatible with Windsurf and VS Code extensions, keybindings and language servers. Its unlimited Tab completions and inline edits are included on every plan, even Free. Devin Local is the built-in agent, which Cognition says is up to 30% more token-efficient than Cascade and supports subagents. Spaces group sessions, pull requests, files and context so several agents can share them. The same Devin agent also runs as Devin Cloud on its own machine, as the Devin CLI and as Devin Review for code review. Paid plans include frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI plus open-source models, and Cognition's own SWE-2 model is free in Devin Desktop and the CLI through October 16, 2026.

The key workflow difference is where you sit. In Codex, you assign a task and review the result. In Devin Desktop, you work in the editor while agents run beside you, and the board shows every local and cloud session in one view.

Plans and Prices

Both products meter usage rather than selling unlimited agents. Codex estimates local messages per five hours on Plus: about 15 to 160 with GPT-6.1 Sol, 15 to 150 with GPT-6 Sol, 5 to 45 with GPT-6 Astra and 350 to 3,000 with GPT-6 Luna. Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit. After the included allowance, Plus and Pro users can buy credits; GPT-6.1 Sol costs 50 credits per million input tokens, 2.5 per million cached and 250 per million output. Fast mode uses included usage at 2.5 times the Standard rate.

Devin Desktop's paid quotas refresh daily and weekly. Once you go past them, extra usage is billed at the chosen model's API price. Cost per message depends on the model, the size of the task and the reasoning required, and Cognition recommends smaller models for routine work to stretch the quota.

Where Codex Wins

Delegated, reviewable work. Codex is built to take an issue, work in a local checkout, a Git worktree or a cloud environment, run the tests and return a diff, then review pull requests on GitHub. That loop works without adopting a new editor.

Surfaces beyond the IDE. The same agent runs in the terminal, in an existing editor through the IDE extension, on the web, on iOS and in Slack or Linear. Teams that do not want to standardize everyone on one editor can still standardize on one agent.

Value if you already pay for ChatGPT. Plus at $20 already includes Codex with cloud review, so for an existing subscriber the marginal cost of trying Codex is zero. Business and Enterprise workspaces add workspace management, cloud-managed policies and admin analytics.

Where Devin Desktop Wins

The editor is the product. Unlimited Tab completions and inline edits on every plan, including Free, make Devin Desktop a strong daily IDE even before agents come in. Codex's IDE extension sits inside someone else's editor.

Model choice. Devin Desktop Pro includes frontier models from several vendors, not only OpenAI's. Developers can pick Claude for one task, GPT for another and an open-source model for cheap routine work, then buy extra usage at API prices.

Many agents in one place. The Agent Command Center shows local and cloud sessions on one board, and ACP support means Codex, Claude Agent, OpenCode and in-house agents appear beside Devin. For an engineer who runs several agents a day, that supervision layer is the main reason to choose Devin Desktop.

Team pricing that separates platform from seats. Teams pricing combines an $80 platform fee with $40 per full developer seat, and includes an admin dashboard, analytics and centralized billing for up to 200 users.

Cost Scenarios

A solo developer who already pays for ChatGPT Plus. Codex adds nothing to the bill, including cloud tasks and GitHub review. Adding Devin Desktop Pro costs another $20 a month; Devin Desktop Free is enough to test whether its IDE and unlimited Tab completions are worth that.

A developer who wants one tool for editing and agents. Devin Desktop Pro at $20 covers the IDE, Devin Local, Devin Cloud and frontier models from several vendors, with extra usage at API prices. The same person on Codex would still need an editor, and Codex Plus costs the same $20.

A 20-developer team. Devin Desktop Teams costs $80 plus 20 × $40 = $880 a month. ChatGPT Business costs 20 × $25 = $500 month-to-month, or $400 billed annually, and includes Codex plus the rest of ChatGPT. Devin's price includes the IDE and agent platform for every seat; ChatGPT Business includes the wider assistant. Teams that already run ChatGPT Business may add Devin Desktop only for the engineers who want its editor.

Heavy agent users. Codex's Pro tiers at $100, $200 and $500 currently have no five-hour limit, and Devin Desktop Max at $200 offers significantly higher quotas than Pro. At that level, compare with a two-week trial on real work, because both vendors describe usage in quotas rather than fixed task counts.

Whichever you pick, watch the model mix. On Codex, routing routine tasks to GPT-6.1 Sol instead of GPT-6 Astra is the main way to stretch an allowance. On Devin Desktop, Cognition recommends smaller models for routine tasks, and SWE-2 is free in Devin Desktop and the CLI until October 16, 2026, which makes it a cheap default for everyday agent work during that window.

Decision Framework

Using Both Together

Because Devin Desktop supports ACP, a team can keep Devin Desktop as the editor and run Codex as one of its agents, while also using Codex Cloud and GitHub review from a ChatGPT plan. That split is sensible when developers like the IDE but the organization already standardizes on OpenAI models for agent work.

To decide, run the same two tasks in each product on one repository: a bug fix with a failing test, and a small feature that touches several files. Record setup time, retries, review effort, test results and the usage shown in each dashboard. Choose Codex if assigning and reviewing work is the bottleneck, and Devin Desktop if the editor and agent supervision are.

Existing Windsurf users do not need to migrate anything to try this. Devin Desktop arrived as an over-the-air update that kept each account's plan, pricing, settings and extensions, so the main decision is whether to keep paying for the IDE, add Codex, or run both through ACP. Revisit the choice when SWE-2's free period ends on October 16, 2026, because routine-task costs on Devin Desktop may change then.