Amazon Q Developer vs OpenAI Codex
as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-14
Amazon Q Developer scores 12 overall and gets named in 16 of 70 answers, while OpenAI Codex scores higher at 21 overall with 22 of 70 answers. Head-to-head, Codex leads on 9 questions to Q Developer's 4, with 7 ties. Q Developer shows up most for "top AI coding assistants in 2026" and "best free AI coding assistants," both 4 of 4, and is never named for things like running locally for privacy or writing tests. Codex peaks on whole-codebase agents (3 of 4) and terminal use (3 of 3), but is never named for free assistants or VS Code use. By assistant, Codex rates highest with ChatGPT (37) and Claude (30), while Q Developer's best score comes from Gemini (25).
Head to head
| metric | Amazon Q Developer | OpenAI Codex |
|---|---|---|
| score | 12 | 21 |
| questions won | 6 | 12 |
By assistant
Amazon Q Developer
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 7 | 15% of answers | #8.7 |
| Claude | 11 | 20% of answers | #6.3 |
| Gemini | 25 | 50% of answers | #7.6 |
| Perplexity | 11 | 20% of answers | #6.3 |
OpenAI Codex
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 37 | 55% of answers | #4.2 |
| Claude | 30 | 45% of answers | #4.3 |
| Gemini | 0 | 0% of answers | |
| Perplexity | 8 | 10% of answers | #3.0 |
Where they differ
Only Amazon Q Developer gets named for
- What are the best free AI coding assistants?
- What's the best AI coding assistant for VS Code?
Only OpenAI Codex gets named for
- What's the best AI coding assistant that works in the terminal?
- What are the best AI coding agents that can work across a whole codebase?
- Which AI coding tool is best for writing tests?
- What's the best AI coding assistant for a solo developer building a SaaS?
- Which AI coding assistant is best for large codebases?
- What's the best AI coding assistant for building mobile apps?
- Which AI coding tool writes the most reliable code?
- What's the best AI code editor right now?
More comparisons
- Amazon Q Developer vs JetBrains AI Assistant
- Amazon Q Developer vs Tabnine
- Amazon Q Developer vs Continue
- Amazon Q Developer vs Roo Code
- Amazon Q Developer vs Sourcegraph Cody
- Aider vs OpenAI Codex
Not sold on either?
Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI coding assistants leaderboard