Cloud agent · active

Codex

OpenAI’s coding agent across ChatGPT, desktop, editor, terminal, worktrees, and cloud environments.

Visit Codex ↗Checked Sep 08, 2026 · review due Oct 08, 2026
Best for
Developers who want parallel local and cloud agent workflows connected through one ChatGPT account.
Avoid if
You need self-hosted model execution or an entirely open-source product surface.

01 / Editorial view

Where it fits

Strengths

  • Local and cloud surfaces
  • Built-in parallel worktrees and cloud environments
  • Scheduled background work

Limitations

  • Self-hosted model execution is not offered
  • Cloud features require ChatGPT authentication rather than API-key access

02 / Workflow

Surfaces and capabilities

Autocomplete
No
Chat
Yes
Agent
Yes
Background agent
Yes
Review
Yes
Testing
Yes

Editors

VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Xcode, JetBrains IDEs

Operating systems

macOS, Windows, Linux

Repository hosts

GitHub, GitLab

Languages

Language-agnostic

Bring your own key

Yes

Bring your own model

Yes

03 / Orchestration

Coordination model

Supported agents

Codex

Isolation

Git worktrees, Cloud environments

Task sources

ChatGPT, Editor, Terminal, Scheduled work

Maximum parallelism

Unknown

Planning
Yes
Scheduling
Yes
Agent communication
No
Review gates
Yes
CI recovery
Yes
Merge workflow
Unknown
Session persistence
Yes
Observability
Yes
Human approval
Yes

04 / Cost and deployment

What it costs to run

Individual

Free and Go provide limited access; Plus costs $20/month and Pro starts at $100/month.

Team

Business starts at $20 per user/month with annual billing or $25 monthly.

Enterprise

Contact OpenAI.

API-key usage is billed separately and does not include Codex cloud features.

05 / Privacy

Data handling

Code processing
Codex spans local terminal/editor surfaces and OpenAI cloud environments.
Indexing
Unknown
Retention
Retention and residency controls depend on the ChatGPT workspace plan and configuration.
Training policy
Business, Enterprise, and Edu data is not used for training by default; personal-plan users control training through ChatGPT data controls.
Enterprise controls
SAML SSO, RBAC, SCIM, Audit logs, Retention and residency controls

06 / Evidence

Primary sources

Changelog

What changed

Next