Codex vs MiniMax: Side-by-Side Comparison 2026

Codex vs MiniMax comparison 2026. Side-by-side features, pricing & capabilities.

Codex is an AI agent and a CLI-based coding agent from OpenAI — asynchronous autonomous coding agent. MiniMax is an AI assistant from MiniMax — ai assistant and model provider with coding capabilities.

Codex🏆 Approved

OpenAI's autonomous coding agent. Available via web, desktop app (macOS), CLI (macOS/Linux/Windows), and VS Code extension.

  • ✓ Code completions
  • ✓ AI chat
  • ✓ Agentic mode
  • ✓ Multi-file editing
  • ✓ Terminal commands

Free / $8/mo · 6 plans

MiniMax

MiniMax is a Shanghai-based AI company (Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed) offering the MiniMax Agent app and API access to their M2.5 and M2.1 models. M2.5 scores 80.2% on SWE-Bench Verified at roughly 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus. Models work inside Claude Code, Cline, Cursor, OpenCode, and other coding tools via Anthropic- and OpenAI-compatible API endpoints.

  • ✓ AI chat
  • ✓ Agentic mode
  • ✓ Multi-file editing
  • ✓ Terminal commands
  • ✓ Test generation

Free / $10/mo · 6 plans

Feature Codex MiniMax
Category Agent / CLIAssistant
Starting Price Free Free
Model Family GPT / CodexMiniMax
Open Source Yes (CLI)Partial (M2.1 open-weight on Hugging Face)

Pricing verified Feb 25, 2026. Codex pricing | MiniMax pricing

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Key Differences

  • Category: Codex is an AI agent and a CLI-based coding agent; MiniMax is an AI assistant.
  • Starting price: Codex starts at $8/mo; MiniMax starts at $10/mo.
  • Model family: Codex uses GPT / Codex; MiniMax uses MiniMax.
  • Open source: Codex: Yes (CLI). MiniMax: Partial (M2.1 open-weight on Hugging Face).
  • Bring your own key: Codex supports BYOK; MiniMax does not.
  • Platforms: Codex runs on Linux, Web, Windows (experimental), macOS; MiniMax runs on API, Desktop, Web.
  • Provider: Codex is built by OpenAI; MiniMax is built by MiniMax.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Codex if you want asynchronous coding tasks you can fire off and review when ready. Choose MiniMax if you want frontier-level coding at 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of Claude Opus or GPT-5. Read our full reviews to see which fits your workflow.

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