20$ of Codex Pro vs 20$ Claude Pro
Posted on: 2026-03-06
I have paid $20 a month for Claude Pro since the start of the year. I usually only have time to code at night once my kids are sleeping, which gives me a tight window of two to three hours. The problem is how Claude handles usage. You get a set amount of data you can use every five hours. Even if you do not use it at all during the day, those credits do not add up. I found that when I was doing heavy work like refactoring or creating unit tests, I would hit my limit within 45 minutes. That left me with no AI help for the rest of my evening.
I considered their $200 monthly plan, which offers much higher limits, but that felt like a waste since I only use the tool at night. Instead, I thought about adding a second subscription to a competitor for another $20. I signed up for OpenAI and was surprised to find I could use it for four hours straight without hitting a single limit. This meant I could cancel my Claude subscription and just stick with OpenAI.
Anthropic has a clear page that shows your usage and when your limit resets. OpenAI has a portal too, but I mostly keep an eye on the usage bars in my coding tools. I watched my available percentage go down and then climb back up throughout the night. I never actually got stuck.
In terms of quality, both tools feel very similar. They both make the same kinds of mistakes and show similar strengths. Because of this, the decision comes down to the price and the uptime. I decided to stop using Claude.
However, I did run into a strange "security" block with OpenAI. It was very odd because I was just building a simple math app for my six-year-old using NextJS. There was nothing risky about it. I was able to start again a few seconds later, but it made me think.
While AI helps us work much faster, that speed is guarded by a handful of corporations. They have the power to cut you off at any time, which puts you at a huge disadvantage. The idea that a few private companies could suddenly block you from this wealth of information and speed is frightening.