I tested Cursor Composer 2.5 vs OpenAI GPT-5.5 Medium Fast in a head-to-head coding speed test. Same prompt. Same task. Results: Composer 2.5: 43 sec GPT-5.5: 2 min 3 sec Composer finished faster, while GPT-5.5 took longer and made more tool calls.

Raw Prompt: # Stripe Discord Webhook Implementation Plan **Goal:** Build a Node.js Stripe webhook service that listens for successful payment events and sends Discord embed notifications with payment details. **Architecture:** Use Express with a raw JSON body on the Stripe webhook route so Stripe signatures can be verified safely. Keep payment event normalization, Discord embed construction, and server routing in separate modules so each piece can be tested directly. **Tech Stack:** Node.js, Express, Stripe SDK, Node built-in `fetch`, Jest, Supertest, dotenv.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Composer 2.5 hits differently, it has changed the flow

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Composer 2.5 hits different. It completely changed the flow. It’s so fast I don’t even have time to think about the next message before it’s already done.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Same feeling

@cursor_ai @OpenAI ngl framing 'more tool calls' as a negative is the tell faster isn't better if it's skipping verification steps

That’s fair, but in this clip it wasn’t really “verification.” Codex first produced broken code for a simple task, then used extra tool calls to fix its own mistake. Composer 2.5 got it right in one shot. So the point isn’t “more tool calls = bad.” The point is Composer was faster while also needing less recovery work.

@OpenAI Subscriptions used: Cursor 20$ plan Codex Pro 200$ plan

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Which output more accurate code?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI I couldn't even tell which one is composer and which one is Codex lmaoo

@cursor_ai @OpenAI so similar UI ngl

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Yeah

@cursor_ai @OpenAI I think what’s more important is which one gives the better output?

wow, do you know the cost for each of them?

Codex used 411,7K total tokens. Total tokens: 411.7K Input: 54.6K Output: 6.2K Reasoning: 779 Cache read: 350.8K Cost: $1.59 Cursor used 180.3K tokens, so about 180,300 total tokens. Codex used about 2.28x as many tokens as Cursor in this comparison.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI very cool analysis. just wait till composer 3 🙂

@cursor_ai @OpenAI will do ;)

@cursor_ai @OpenAI but who implemented it better?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Not sure the speed difference is a win if it sacrifices tool reliability. also, did you check the output quality from both?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Which one was better in terms of results?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI tool call count matters more than wall time here. fewer calls with faster completion usually means better task decomposition, not just faster tokens.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Been using C 2.5 as daily driver for the last week, haven’t needed Claude or GPT at all. That said, it’s on well structured codebases. It’s performed better than Claude at sticking to the patterns and conventions, planning is solid. At times slower, and less accurate at peak 🕰️

This is a *terrible* metric. AI coding is already 1000x+ faster than any human. Raw speed is the least valuable thing to measure with AI coding. Metrics that matter are accuracy and correctness, lack of subtle bugs, code quality, maintainability, best practices, and proper error handling, logging, testing, and security compliance. Fast but brittle code just creates more work later and more issues now. I'd rather wait an EXTRA 10 minutes if it meant higher quality, solid output that doesn't need multiple rounds to fix.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI now give it something minimally hard something it has to do the right assumptions

@cursor_ai @OpenAI And the quality?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI composer is so fast that my gpt 5.5 habits are slowing me down

@cursor_ai @OpenAI What was the specific task you tested? Wondering if the speed difference holds across different types of coding problems or if Composer just excels at certain patterns.

speed is table stakes at this point honestly. the real differentiator is which tool requires the least babysitting. 43 seconds means nothing if you spend 10 minutes fixing hallucinated imports. i've been testing both and the error rate matters way more than raw speed for actual shipping.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI speed is one axis. token cost and edit quality are the ones i'd want benchmarked too. 43s of cursor doing the wrong thing isn't a win

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Sometimes it’s hard to justify the performance, code quality, and cost. GPT-5.5 is still quite slow, even with Fast Mode enabled, but it’s noticeably more stable and produces more reliable code.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI I used both and composer miss a lot of critical piece, it explains why it is so fast whereas gpt nails it almost consistently. Time is not an issue at this point, quality matters way more. 1 more minute to avoid a catastrophe in prod ✌🏻

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Time to switch!

@cursor_ai @OpenAI The trick is @RepoPrompt have GPT orchestrate, manage and plan what composer does all in one session. With GPT agents checking compose work or other composer instances checking its work. You get two models, multiple perspectives and speed increases!

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Why should they go faster at Openai when burning tokens brings them real cash

@cursor_ai @OpenAI If you are a software engineer then tell me about the code quality it produces I recently switched from claude -> codex and I like the code quality of gpt 5.5. but have not seen anyone talking about code quality recently.. like at all..

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Any quality difference?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Difference in output?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI How are you using composer inside codex app?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI How well does it do with things like blender mcp? Can you test that?

@cursor_ai @OpenAI faster is not better task completion with least issues is; codex writes code that is well thought off, even does testing before publishing completion report. That is the difference between SOTA and normal models.

@cursor_ai @OpenAI I think that soon once composer 3 comes out people will switch, like a lot of people from other AI models to composer

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Very Good

@cursor_ai @OpenAI Where is the result ? Faster ≠ better