AWS TransformvsCodex cloud
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
AWS Transform
Amazon Web Services · Autonomous SWE
#125
Panel
6.00 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.5
- Usefulness
- 5.7
- Cost
- 4.7
- Longevity
- 8.2
“It migrates Fujitsu GS21 mainframes, a sentence that will find exactly the four people who needed to read it.”
Codex cloud
OpenAI · Autonomous SWE
#55
Panel
6.53 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.2
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 5.8
- Longevity
- 7.0
“Ships models named Sol, Terra and Luna, so your pull request is now reviewed by a planetarium.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | AWS Transform | Codex cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Autonomous SWE | Autonomous SWE |
| Runs | cloud | cloud, sandbox |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | No | NoThe Browser capability and cloud browser belong to ChatGPT/ChatGPT Work, not to Codex cloud chats, whose containers only get configurable HTTP internet access (https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/cloud/internet-access). |
| Sandboxed execution | No | YesEach chat gets its own container from the `universal` image, cached for up to 12 hours (https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/environments/cloud-environment). |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesAWS describes specialised agents per domain (mainframe, .NET, VMware, discovery and planning) working across the phases of a transformation. | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Amazon Bedrock | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-5.6 Luna |
| Bring your own model | No | NoThe Amazon Bedrock model-provider path is explicitly limited to local Codex surfaces and states that Codex cloud is not available (https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/amazon-bedrock). |
| Local models | No | NoCloud chats run on OpenAI-hosted models only; the `model_provider` config that redirects inference is read by local clients, not by cloud containers. |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | usage | subscription |
| Starts at | n/a | $20/mo |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Bring your own key | No | NoCloud tasks require a ChatGPT plan; an OpenAI API key does not unlock them. |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | No |
| License | proprietary | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | n/a | n/a |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | AWS Transform | Codex cloud | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.0 | 7.3 | Codex cloud — Pick Codex cloud if you already pay for ChatGPT and want to hand a task off from a GitHub pull request or a Slack thread and come back later; pick Jules if you live in the Google world. |
| El Crítico | 5.8 | 6.5 | Codex cloud — Each environment can be granted internet access and holds your secrets, so the agent is a container with your credentials and a network policy you configured once and forgot. |
| El Profesor | 6.0 | 6.8 | Codex cloud — Clone, setup scripts, parallel execution, then a summary and diff with logs to inspect; a research preview since May 16, 2025 on codex-1, with no benchmark published for the current models. |
| La Inversora | 8.0 | 8.0 | no preference |
| La Jefa | 6.8 | 7.0 | Codex cloud — Business is $20 per user, $1,200 a month for sixty, extra usage is credits priced per model, and there is an Enterprise tier, the shape procurement already knows from ChatGPT. |
| El Hacker | 3.5 | 3.5 | no preference |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.