Codex vs Cursor: which one's apps make money
Cursor wins on volume: ProvenStartups indexes 44 businesses whose founders name Cursor in the build story, against 10 that name Codex. Read that gap as…
Cursor wins on volume: ProvenStartups indexes 44 businesses whose founders name Cursor in the build story, against 10 that name Codex. Read that gap as adoption age, not a quality verdict — we have 44 Cursor cases and 10 Codex cases, and the Codex side is thin. Ten rows settle nothing, but they do show what people charge for and how well each claim holds up.
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On that second point: 3 of the 10 Codex cases carry third-party-verified revenue, against 10 of the 44 Cursor cases — proportionally better, on a sample where one case swings the ratio ten points. Plan against the table, not the ratio.
Which tool's builders have the bigger proven numbers?
Cursor, and at the top it is not close. The Cursor cohort holds the largest verified figures here, including the tool's own maker, Anysphere, at $500M/yr with 60 people and a $9B valuation. The largest verified number on the Codex side is BridgeMind at $242,964 ARR.
Below Anysphere the Cursor side stacks up fast: Gravl at $440K/mo with 70K+ subscribers, Cursor Directory at $34,000–35,000/mo from a three-hour weekend project, at $13K MRR — all verified. The Codex side's headline claims are bigger than its verified ones: at $250K+ MRR and at $1M ARR are both founder-reported.
