ai / coding / claude code / codex / cursor / opencode / copilot / developer tools
Ranking every AI coding tool: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot
I rank the five AI coding tools I actually use day to day, and the rankings have moved a lot in six months. Claude Code lands in A tier. It was S tier for me, and the quality has slipped with their context engineering to the point where it misses simple instructions, but the amount of Opus 5 you get on a subscription is hard to argue with. Cursor drops to B tier for the same reason, slow degradation, with Grok Bot helping but not enough to hold its old spot. Copilot is F tier and I have yet to meet one person who defends it. OpenCode takes A tier on versatility alone, since it behaves like Claude Code out of the box and is open source.
Codex is the reason I made this. Six months ago I would have called it C tier. With GPT-6 Astra it is on a level the other models are not competing at, and I genuinely think Astra is AGI. That is the one ranking here I would defend hardest.
I build NexusTrade with these tools, so the ranking is based on shipping real work rather than benchmarks. If you want to see what they help me build, the trading agent is free to try.
Transcript
0:00Claude Code.
0:01This one is tough, but I have to say A tier.
0:03It used to be S tier, but the quality has gone down with their context engineering, to the point where it can't follow simple instructions.
0:10At the same time, the amount of Opus 5 you get off a subscription is too much to ignore.
0:15It's a solid option for software engineers.
0:18Cursor.
0:19B tier.
0:20It used to be A tier, but again, it's slowly degrading in quality.
0:24I think it comes with Grok Bot, which helps, but not enough.
0:28Copilot.
0:29F tier.
0:29I haven't heard a single person say that they liked it.
0:33OpenCode?
0:34A tier, mostly because of its versatility.
0:36It's like Claude Code out of the box, but it's open source.
0:40Codex.
0:41C tier if we're talking six months ago.
0:44S tier now.
0:45It was slowly climbing the ranks before Astra, particularly because of its browser.
0:49But with GPT-6 Astra, it's on a level that other AI models can't comprehend.
0:54I genuinely think Astra is AGI.
0:57Because of that, it's beyond goated.
1:00S tier.
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