What is Codex?

Source: OpenAI Blog

Overview

Codex is an AI agent you can delegate real work to. While ChatGPT excels at asking questions, brainstorming, and drafting in conversation, Codex is built for tasks that span files, tools, and repeatable workflows, helping you move work forward.

You don’t need to be a developer or work on software to use Codex. It goes beyond coding and is especially useful for tasks that require more than a single answer—such as gathering information from multiple sources, creating and updating files, or producing outputs like documents, slides, and spreadsheets. Codex can connect to tools, take action, and help you get things done.

How Codex differs from ChatGPT

• ChatGPT: Helps you think through the work, generate ideas, and draft content in a conversational manner.
• Codex: Helps you hand off parts of the work itself, executing actions across files and tools to advance the project.

Think of Codex as an eager, capable assistant on their first day: fast, helpful, and able to accomplish a lot, but still needing your direction on priorities and your review before the work is final.

Typical Use Cases

• Pull information from emails, Slack, notes, and dashboards
• Create a slide deck from source materials
• Build a digital assistant to organize your day
• Develop a simple dashboard
• Generate a working app or landing page
• Fix a broken workflow
• Update a set of files
• Automate a mundane task

Guidance for Using Codex

• Use ChatGPT when you want help thinking through the work.
• Use Codex when you want help moving the work forward.

Remember that Codex is not a replacement for your judgment; it should complement your expertise and be reviewed before finalizing any output.