Skip to content
SlateIndex
CodexAI Coding Assistants
vs
ZedThe world's fastest IDE. Open source. AI optional.
Comparison · AI Coding Assistants · weekly run Nov 3

Codex vs Zed

Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?

The short answer

Codex is the stronger AI pick in AI Coding Assistants: it has a visibility score of 20.9 versus 1 for Zed, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.

Choose Codex if…

  • You want the brand AI engines rank higher (20.9 vs 1)
  • AI answers describe it more positively (64% vs 50% positive)
  • Strong for autonomous coding tasks
  • Frequently included in top AI coding shortlists

Choose Zed if…

  • Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
  • Works with VS Code and JetBrains

AI visibility side by side

Latest weekly run · Nov 3

Metric Codex Zed
Visibility score20.9%1%
Change vs last weekNewNew
Rank in AI Coding Assistants#4#26
Share of voice5.4%0.4%
Mentions this run282
Positive in AI answers64%50%

The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.

Visibility score trend

Weekly runs over the last 60 days

0%25%50%75%100%Nov 3Codex 21%

Codex 0pp · Zed 0pp over 0 weekly runs.

Engine by engine

Codex leads on 3 of 3 engines

ChatGPT
35.6%
0.9%
AI Mode
10.4%
2%
Perplexity
16.9%
0%
CodexZed

Head to head in AI answers

1 engine answers name both brands

1Codex ranked higher
0Zed ranked higher

Features, pricing & fit

DimensionCodexZed
Pricing model—Per seat
Entry price—Free; paid from $10 per seat / mo
Free plan—Yes
DeploymentCloud-hosted agent, with local CLI, IDE extension and desktop app surfaces.Desktop editor on Windows, macOS and Linux, with remote development over SSH, WSL and dev containers. Users can run local Ollama models, and API keys for hosted providers are kept on the local machine.
Founded20252021
Headquarters—Boulder, Colorado
Employees—11–50
Funding—Series B · $42M raised
Best forSoftware engineers who want an AI agent to handle coding tasks such as writing code and fixing bugs.Developers who want a fast editor with AI optional, and teams that need org-level control over AI features and data sharing through the Business plan.

Plans side by side

Codex

Pricing not available.

Zed

Personal$0forever
Pro$10month
Business$30seat, per month
Zed pricing

Pros and cons

Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand

Codex

  • Strong for autonomous coding tasks
  • Frequently included in top AI coding shortlists
  • Enterprise-scale engineering adoption
  • Deterministic multi-step task execution for OpenAI-first teams
  • Delegated engineering tasks, code review, and cloud or parallel agent workflows
  • Appears less consistently in enterprise analyst lists

Zed

  • Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
  • Works with VS Code and JetBrains
  • Heavy usage requires a paid plan upgrade

Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run

Cite as: SlateIndex, “Codex vs Zed”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/codex-vs-zed, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.