OpenAI announces Codex Cloud for remote coding access on ChatGPT paid plans

OpenAI has turned its Codex platform into a full-blown cloud coding agent, giving developers the ability to offload programming tasks to sandboxed environments that run entirely independent of their local machines. The upgrade means writing features, squashing bugs, running tests, and even proposing pull requests can all happen in the cloud while a developer is, say, walking the dog or pretending to pay attention in a meeting. The service is bundled into existing ChatGPT subscription tiers at no additional cost. Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, and Enterprise plan holders all get access, which is a notable pricing decision in a market where AI coding tools often come with their own separate bills. From research preview to general availability Codex Cloud first appeared as a research preview on May 16, 2025, powered by the codex-1 model. Since then, OpenAI has steadily expanded its capabilities and pushed the platform to general availability with a suite of meaningful upgrades. The headline performance number: a 90% reduction in median task completion time, achieved largely through container caching. In practical terms, that means the system provisions dedicated cloud containers pre-loaded...