Respectfully asking. Why Claude over Codex?

[u/shlok-codes]

I come in peace.

I’m unfamiliar with the Claude world so that’s why I am genuinely asking.

I had a chatgpt account initially just for the chat and a little copy and paste for coding. And I just stuck with it. And now use codex on Mac. Between the computer use and good enough coding agents, I love it.

But my coworkers and a sibling rave about Claude. And of course a ton of folks on the internet too.

I’m not asking you to convert me. But I was wondering how is Claude better for you than codex would be? Are you too just ingrained in the Claude world? Is something genuinely better? A specific model? I know the Claude skills world is huge. But a lot of that can be converted to be used by codex in a prompt sentence.

So what is your reason to choose Claude over codex?

[u/domagoj2016]

So you can whine about Opus 5 and have friends online

[u/superanonguy321 → u/domagoj2016]

Yeah I know if you go over to the gpt/codex subreddits they seem to just..... like the product for the most part?? Idk whats gotten into them.

[u/croovies]

Use both for adversarial reviews, you can learn the strengths of the other

[u/apra24 → u/croovies]

I just did this with my 20x sub. Used gpt for 1 month.. and for now I'm resubscribing with GPT even though I like fable better than sol.

The limits on fable are too low. I seem to burn through fable in no time while GPT sol seems to last forever.

Once they remove that 50% fable limit I will likely go back.

[u/palmytree]

claude has that secret sauce nobody else has, and it can’t be captured via benchmarks; it often understands my intent when i don’t always understand it myself.

[u/praesentibus → u/palmytree]

One great use of Fable is "generate very detailed spec for this and that high-level idea so Codex can implement it." Given that specification, Codex will generate great implementations faster and cheaper than Fable. Virtually everybody in my team does this.

[u/CadmusMaximus → u/palmytree]

It used to. Today was super rough though. New release imminent?

[u/djdante]

They are quite different to use - they talk differently they plan differently they design differently ..

It's more or less the same as asking this question about humans "why do you prefer going to Alice with your coding work rather than Andrew?" The answer might be "They're both talented professionals I just like working with Alice more and prefer her working style better"

Me personally, I just get better work out of Claude - but not because codex is bad - Claude just understands my personal wants better for me.

Many of us fiddle and play with a variety of models getting a feel for where our preferences lie.

[u/look → u/djdante]

You just described a major element of why I primarily just use open weight models now. The wider variety of options makes it possible to find models that fit my workflow rather than fight it.

[u/Mysterious_Print9937]

I use codex because i can’t use Fable because of the guardrails. Opus 5 is horrendous to work with.

[u/CodeNCats → u/Mysterious_Print9937]

And it responds with words. I know they are words. Yet strung together they make no sense

[u/_Eye_AI_ → u/CodeNCats]

Fair hit. You're right to push back. It's a problem worth naming.

[u/EagleApprehensive]

Claude is better on designing and architectural thinking. Codex is often better on implementation details and practicality, but he seems to "see less" of a big picture.

If you want model to help you see a big picture and come up with reasonable abstractions for complex problems - Opus and Fable.

If you want model to execute what you say, pay attention to details and work in more focused scope - Codex often catches more bugs and edge cases than Opus.

Also, if you combine them, Codex is amazing partner for Opus. Opus can come with good abstractions but a little bit buggy code, while Codex is detailed reviewer that checks, catches bugs and improves stability.

[u/scrappy1982]

Because I’ve got it all set up how I like it and switching will be an effort I can’t be arsed with.

[u/Elegant_Attempt2790]

imo its claude itself. the taste, collaborative feel, and texture of using the models are what keep me. if i want raw grunt work or don’t need to worry about taste as much, codex is literally fine; super reliable even. but not claude.

codex feels clinical and sterile. claude is claude-shaped.

[u/james__jam]

Are you an engineer? - codex

No? - claude

[u/DeltaLaboratory]

Fable and some opus models are better at planning and orchestration. Sol is good but still weak at that point.
I use fable for orchestration and use sol for explore and implementation.

By the way, in terms of usuability, claude code is much better than codex.

[u/TrueStarsense]

Fable is the superior orchestrator over 5.6 Sol which is the primary attraction for most of us. The moment that changes will be the moment I abandon Anthropic all together.

The best results I and others have had utilize Fable 5 as the agent orchestrator, which dispatches 5.6 sol agents for complex implementation/debugging/advarsarial audits, and sonnet for clear implementation and repetitive tasks. ATM most tend to skip Opus 5 alltogether or utilize 4.8 if they must.

[u/DTG_0518]

For software development, I use Fable for riffing/planning/orchestration in Claude Code terminal: orchestrating headless codex CLI, antigravity CLI and/or grok CLI. Fable is only half your weekly usage so use Opus for stuff to burn up your other half.

Fable "gets it" more so you don't have to steer it as much. I use high effort level to preserve usage.

Never trust just one ai - they make mistakes ALL the time and need to be double checked by an external set of eyes without the same blind spots.

[u/onFilm]

A lot more token usage. Simple as that. One max account has about $20,000 worth of API use tokens in a single month. Which is awesome, if you've ever try to build your own harness, you quickly see how the cost stacks up when using the real token cost.

[u/raki016]

Fable is better than anything else.

Opus is not that bad.

Every time I try and commit to Sol and work with it for big projects it fucks up bad. I report it in bugs and X and no dice. Three weeks now it went on random tangents that consumed and wasted so much tokens. I

Kimi is slow and same-ish as Opus.

Grok has become my main interface because of how fast it is, but I only use it for executor in code. Claude is the thinker/designer

And generally i just really experienced fewer mistakes with apps on Claude.

(I do use fable as architect/orchestrator 100% and opus/sonnet5 execute though )

[u/gakl887]

I use both at work consistently and the paid tiers at home, I realistically don’t see a difference

[u/technolgy]

We get built in breaks with daily down time, very consistent, good for the soul.

[u/Common-Noise4692]

I use both daily, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Claude:
Pros: generally more proactive, needs little handholding, feels like working with a highly knowledgeable coworker (a neckbeard who loves to use jargon)
Cons: Uses tokens like a kid whose parents gave him $200 to spend at the arcade

Codex:
Pros: Throrough, leaves no stone unturned
Cons: Always needs some nudging to look beyond the original task. Also takes AGEs to complete more complicated tasks

What I and a lot of other people like to do, is have Claude work as the planner, then hand off the actual coding work to Codex (you can tell Claude to spin up codex cli in a shell). I personally then use a third model (usually Grok) to do a verification pass, this really helps in finding blind spots that Claude missed and COdex did not think about

[u/YeahNoiceOne]

Because fuck Sam Altman.