OpenAI的Codex编程产品经过半年集中投入，周活用户突破1000万，最终实现对Anthropic旗下Claude Code的反超。[1]这一市场领先地位的获得伴随着OpenAI的巨大牺牲——公司关停了Sora视频生成工具和Atlas浏览器，并将内部编程算力投入提升100倍。[1]
Codex的快速增长轨迹显著。[1]从2025年9月用户量仅为Claude Code的5%，到2026年1月接近40%，再到7月达到1000万周活，Codex完成了市场份额的逆转。[1]这种增长动力主要源于产品的速度优势——Codex完成任务平均耗时10.2分钟，而Claude Code需要23.6分钟。[1]同时，Codex的任务交互更加高效，完成同样任务平均需114轮交互和1320万token消耗，相比Claude Code的153轮和2180万token明显更优。[1]
为实现这一目标，OpenAI付出了沉重代价。Sora在被关停前曾获得迪士尼重大支持——迪士尼准备授权200多个经典角色并投资10亿美元。[1]Atlas浏览器则仅上线九个月后便宣布退役。[1]在补贴策略上，OpenAI频繁重置用户额度以刺激使用，平均不到9天一次，到7月这一周期更是缩短到3天一次。[1]OpenAI CEO Altman曾在访谈中形容这一追赶过程为"kamikaze mission"（神风特攻）。[1]
OpenAI has achieved a dramatic reversal in the competitive programming agent market, with its Codex product surpassing Anthropic's Claude Code after six months of concentrated effort.[1] Codex reached 10 million weekly active users by July 2026, climbing from merely 5% of Claude Code's user base in September 2025 to approximately 40% by January 2026.[1] This milestone came at substantial cost: the company shuttered its Sora video generation tool and Atlas web browser, while dramatically escalating internal computational resources dedicated to programming inference by 100 times between early 2026 and July.[1]
The primary driver of Codex's rapid ascent lies in its operational efficiency.[1] Codex completes programming tasks in an average of 10.2 minutes compared to Claude Code's 23.6 minutes, requiring only 114 interactions and 13.2 million tokens versus Claude Code's 153 interactions and 21.8 million tokens respectively.[1] CEO Sam Altman characterized the pursuit of market leadership as a "kamikaze mission" during an interview.[1] OpenAI bolstered its competitive position through aggressive user subsidies, resetting customer account balances with escalating frequency—averaging once every nine days and contracting to every three days by July.[1]
The sacrifices made to fuel Codex's growth proved substantial.[1] Sora was discontinued despite Disney's preparation to license over 200 classic characters and invest one billion dollars in the platform.[1] The Atlas browser, which had operated for only nine months, was similarly shut down.[1] Meanwhile, Claude Code maintains a significant revenue advantage with annual revenues exceeding 2.5 billion dollars compared to Codex's 1 billion dollars at the end of January 2026.[1]
