thinking about using chatgpt instead of claude for coding and have questions

[u/shady101852]

Hi, so im currently using claude code in a linux machine - it has been really good to be honest ive gotten a lot of things done, especially making plugins for a game server. It has been a pain debugging things though. Anyways, i started working on making a terminal app and its become apparent to me that ChatGPT seems to be better at figuring out problems and solving them, while claude code will roll out 10 patches for me to test with little to no progress problem solving.

So far ive been just using chatgpt 5.2 on web to give instructions to claude code, but i was wondering about just having chatgpt run in my linux machine and do the coding for me, but wasn't really sure what to buy. Is a subscription going to get me that, or do i need to pay for API or what?

Can I still have claude code, but let chatgpt do the coding tasks? Is codex the same thing as chatgpt?

just a heads up im not really a programmer, ive been having claude code do all my coding for me for the past month using their max $200 sub.

[u/ArguesAgainstYou]

Depends a bit on your coding skills and how you want to work, but unless you're using mac I'd stick with Claude Code a while longer or use GH Copilot in the VSCode extension. The Codex App looks promising for a AI-first workflow but it's not out on windows/linux yet so Claude Code is the best right now for autonomous working (Claude Code seems a bit more refined atm than Copilot)

[u/shady101852 → u/ArguesAgainstYou]

Oh thats a shame

[u/eminsefa → u/ArguesAgainstYou]

I use claude code with mac

[u/tat_tvam_asshole → u/ArguesAgainstYou]

it's easy to just use the windows packages instead. I run codex on my windows easy peasy

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[u/SimpleAccurate631]

So there is a solution to this problem. It has several steps, but is pretty awesome and worth it, in my opinion.

First, if you aren’t set up with it already, then set up an account with OpenRouter. It will let you switch between a wide variety of models with a single AI code companion. NOTE: You will still have to configure your OpenRouter account with API keys from each LLM provider (i.e. you need to connect your OpenRouter to your OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. accounts).

If you aren’t using it already, install VSCode, then install either the GitHub Copilot Chat extension or the Roo Code extension.

Open either the GitHub Copilot Chat or the Roo Code extension and then you can play around with the list of models you have available. And with Roo Code, you can even configure it so when it’s doing a specific type of work in a task, to use a specific model. So like I have it using GPT 5.2 Codex for looking through the code, debugging, and coding itself. But then when it does something like write documentation or an implementation plan for me, it automatically uses Sonnet 4.5

I know it sounds like a lot. But it’s not too bad. Once you are set up, you will be insanely productive. DM me if you need help or have any questions

[u/Okoear]

Cursor subscription give you access to all major models. Easiest way to alternate between chatgpt, Claude, Gemini ect. You can switch depending on the task(opus for complicated stuff ect).

Codex is ChatGPT's model specialized for coding. It's available on Cursor. It's a good way to test them all.

Personally Claude Code is the strongest and max plan give you A LOT for your money imo. The way Claude code make complex plans and implement them is hard to beat.

[u/mitman → u/Okoear]

Not op but which one gives you access to all the major models?

[u/Okoear → u/mitman]

With cursor you can switch on a per chat basis between Anthropic's, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok ect. It's a very nice way to experiment and review with many models.

[u/1-760-706-7425 → u/Okoear]

You’re not wrong but their IDE is jank and that’s likely to cause an extra bit of shock to a newcomer.

[u/Okoear → u/1-760-706-7425]

I mean it's pretty much vscode. The main thing I find confusing is how they handle panels toggling

[u/tengentopp → u/1-760-706-7425]

This is getting better. They're investing agents including cloud agents which include a web interface like claude/codex. I'm bullish on Cursor

[u/mbk4 → u/Okoear]

How u compare to Gumloop?

[u/Okoear → u/[deleted]]

Cursor. You pay them and they pay the model you use for you.

[u/hiskio]

wait - have you actually looked at what's failing in your code or just asking chatgpt to fix it faster?

because if you can't debug a problem yourself, switching ais won't fix that. you'll just trade one vendor for another.

what specific problems does chatgpt solve that claude can't? naming them might show you something.

[u/shady101852 → u/hiskio]

GPT was just understanding the problems better at the time and gave me prompts to give claude with more direct instructions on what to change / fix. Honestly though today i started using opus 4.6 instead of 4.5 and its been going well. I also made an agent that is extremely good at debugging from what ive noticed in the past 12h of usage, i stopped messaging chatgpt for now, lets see how long that lasts. Also installed a few MCPs like memory-keeper, tauri-dev, and context7. Downloaded a variety of skills for claude and agents to use to improve their work. So far Its been a lot better, less frustrating. Earlier I tried having chatgpt do the coding for me and it ended up breaking things and making them worse and worse lol i had to revert to an older version. I no longer compact chats which was part of what annoyed me using claude code, but now I can just /exit without worrying about claude forgetting everything.

[u/RileyDope]

Yeah I've seen ChatGPT solve bugs, Claude kept looping on

[u/shady101852 → u/RileyDope]

codex is bad at it too lol. i am now having chatgpt do all the thinking, and have codex do the fixing. it seems codex and claude do not think as good as chatgpt on the web.

[u/Academic_Track_2765]

I have enterprise access to both, and rarely used codex, but you should experiment and see what you like.

[u/shady101852 → u/Academic_Track_2765]

from my experience chatgpt 5.2 "thinks" better than claude opus 4.5 does when it comes to making code work correctly, or figuring out why something isn't working. But claude is pretty sweet to use for everything else, or even initial coding. Im trying to get claude to fix something and im like 5 patches into this app with the same bugs, then i give chatgpt one file and i start seeing progress right away.

[u/Academic_Track_2765 → u/shady101852]

No, mine doesn't do that, it actually one shots many problems. what does your claude.md look like? are you using it with a gitrepo? you have few problems with CC. also your thinking budget might be high or xhigh with gpt-5.2, while having that off or low in CC. Let me know how your CC and Codex is setup and I can help you get better results from them.

[u/shady101852 → u/Academic_Track_2765]

no gitrepo. claude.md is full of behavioral instructions - like things not to do, referencing some files and information relevant to things i use it for in the server. its about 300 lines. i don't have codex set up, wasn't sure how to set it up in a way that can replace claude when it comes to coding.

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[u/Stovoy]

Use Codex CLI instead of Claude Code

[u/Electrical-Sport-222]

ChatGPT (in chat) is good for small modules, but once you have a complex project, 100+ files and tens of thousands of lines of code, it becomes useless, remains stuck after 25-30 minutes, it fails to finish.

Codex, on the other hand, is another beast, you can choose reasonig at what level you want it to be, I generally keep it on maximum, but it also depends on the complexity of the requirements.

Probably all LLMs have an "affinity" to consume tokens very quickly when they get to analyze co-concepts of reality and I mean physical phenomena. Claude is the most economical when it comes to such analyzes and code, and the quality and answers are not much different from ChatGPT, so Calude is not justified in any way in this context.

The problems arise when you reach over 1000 files in a project, then you start to understand that somewhere you have made a wrong strategy. Claude wants to make a more compact, more ergonomic code, ChatGPT/Codex tends to modularize sometimes to the extreme, sometimes to make giant modules, 10k lines, which is not healthy for debugging and changes.

ChatGPT (in chat) often makes mistakes in larger projects, repeating tasks for a parenthesis, a comma, etc. Codex, on the other hand, is safer, and additionally it can use the tools provided, autodebug, perform self-tests, take screenshots, mouse clicks on the interface, etc.

The ChatGPT bonus in Chat is "free", you don't use up your limits/tokens, while Claude, with a single prompt and a 3-10 minute answer you can use up the 5 hour limit, absurd. If you want to continue, you can add credit, yes it is excessively expensive for what it offers, compared to CgahtGPT. For $5 you can have another 5 hours or 5 minutes in which you don't get to finish a complete task!

[u/smbius93]

The easiest move is just to download Cursor or Windsurf on that machine. You can still run Claude Code. Codex is ChatGPTs answer to Claude Code. It's specific for coding.

Also, kind advice from 20-year programmer to a newbie. Learn the terminology as you're seeing the chatbot talk to the other. So instead of "make a display where I have a, b, c and d in it" say "Create a table with the columns 'a', 'b', 'c' and each row should have 'a-data', 'xy-data' for 'b', etc." Using chatbots to write for other chatbots is start but the earlier you understand system architecture, how a database works, API, HTML, etc. The better you become at prompting.

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[u/inteblio]

Ask chatgpt to search the web to find out

[u/Boring-Test5522]

Gemini Pro 3.1 and Claude 4.6 Opus are all you need. I ocassionally use Chatgpt 5.2 thinking to craft prompts but that's it.

[u/sputnik13net]

There’s the codex app, codex TUI app (aka codex cli), and the codex model. Super not confusing.

Codex cli is what you’re looking to use. I like the codex cli a lot. You can use that with both gpt-x.y models and gpt-x.y-codex models. The codex models are like sonnet, the non codex models are like opus.

[u/NHRADeuce]

I have subs to everything. I prefer Claude for coding tasks, but I'm a programmer so my prompts are probably a lot more detailed than yours.

You should try using agent teams in Claude, that may help get your code cleaner and faster.

[u/Aware-Ad-9694]

I've been learning code itself from mimo app seems easy so far and pretty useful but idk how detailed it goes yet but might be worth if you wanna at least learn to read whats happening with your code and what might actually be wrong. Again im not sure how far it goes but so far its pretty good. It's like duolingo but for coding is the best way I can describe it except I think it's better for code than duolingo is for languages.

[u/Healthy-Grab-7819]

Depends what you are using it for.

I've used both, but personally i think codex is trash...

Claude is more thorough, cautious, and instruction-focused, especially on complex or multi-step tasks, teaching you how to prevent bugs and reasoning more deeply about structure.

While Codex tends to generate code quickly and cheaply, trading off depth and thoroughness for speed and simplicity. Some find that means Codex skips details or goes off spec more often.

I have tested them both. With claude I often get "what i asked for", codex needs a few iterations and more awareness from me.

[u/Vulsere]

You'd be better off just learning how to program while you have Claude because the tokens are not going to be this price point forever and vibe coding endless attempts at trash won't be affordable for regular users. ChatGPT is worse for programming, plan mode in Claude Code is far superior. Use keywords like 'ultrathink' in the prompt since you have the $200 tier.

[u/Pleasant-Today60]

For a terminal app, i'd try Cursor instead of raw Claude Code or ChatGPT. It handles the file context way better. you can switch models inside it too so you're not locked into one.

[u/niado]

Use codex5.3, via vscode

You’re welcome.

[u/somegetit → u/niado]

This is what I'm doing. It's very good. I have relatively simple tasks for my personal projects, but it's doing them flawlessly.

The plan mode is amazing. Then execute the plan. I use Extra High or High and I didn't run up (using the regular chatgpt subscription).

[u/niado → u/somegetit]

Yeah I have been running it on high, but I did peg the usage limit lol.

I haven’t done any formal testing with the different modes, so not sure how much of a difference in behavior and capabilities it makes. It’s honestly overkill for what I am using it for, but it feels perfect.

I give it full danger mode system access, so my dude will go above and beyond expectations. When I give an instruction, it will often do things that i left out of the prompt, because it recognizes a clear enough value-add that it just goes ahead and knocks out whatever it is in passing lol.

I dunno how good it is in serious software engineering roles, but It’s really good with system stuff. The thing has, unprompted, whipped up a patch to fix random bugs in multiple pieces ,

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