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# OpenAI is building AI agents for everything. Will everyone use them?

**[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 16 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

OpenAI is pushing ChatGPT Work, a Codex-derived agent product aimed at bringing AI agents beyond software engineers to accountants, investors, doctors, and other white-collar workers. The piece profiles OpenAI engineers building the 'harness' around models, comparing the design philosophy to Anthropic's Claude Code/Cowork approach. Internal data shows near-universal Codex adoption among OpenAI employees (98%) but negligible uptake among outside subscribers (under 1% for individuals, 17% for organizations). The piece covers permission and UX friction in ChatGPT Work, token costs (heavy real-world overspend relative to the $20/month price), the rivalry between OpenAI's 'magic box' philosophy and Anthropic's more conversational, confirmatory approach, and debate over whether harness engineering or raw model capability matters more, citing benchmarks showing the open-source Pi harness outperforming Codex on the same underlying model.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/openai-is-building-an-ai-agent-for-everything-will-everyone-use-them>

## Questions this post answers

### What is ChatGPT Work and how much does it cost?

ChatGPT Work is OpenAI's AI agent product built on a modified version of its Codex coding tool, aimed at giving non-engineers the same agentic capabilities software engineers get, letting agents handle multistep tasks like scheduling, reporting, and data analysis. It launched on OpenAI's lowest subscription tier at $20 a month and was used by about 20 million people, compared to over a billion ChatGPT users overall.

_Anyone weighing whether a $20 agent subscription is worth it can compare real usage data and reviews on daily.dev._

### How does Claude Code's approach differ from OpenAI Codex's harness design?

Claude Code was built around back-and-forth conversation, surveying possibilities and offering the user three or four options before proceeding, then checking in again for continual updates. Codex initially bet on the model handling tasks entirely autonomously with minimal input, an approach OpenAI later abandoned after Claude Code's more interactive style proved more effective, prompting OpenAI to add more user interaction points to Codex over time.

_Developers picking between coding agent styles can track these harness design tradeoffs on daily.dev._

### How much does heavy ChatGPT Work token usage actually cost compared to the subscription price?

Using ChatGPT Work casually for four days consumed more than 80 million tokens, costing about $65 according to the model's own analysis, versus a $20 monthly subscription fee. That represents a subsidy of more than three times the subscription price for just four days of casual use, highlighting a cost gap OpenAI says it is working to close through model efficiency improvements like an 80% price cut on its Luna model.

_Teams budgeting for AI agent adoption can follow token cost and pricing shifts like this on daily.dev._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Codex from 0 to 10M Users: Building ChatGPT Work — Akshay Nathan, OpenAI](https://daily.dev/posts/codex-from-0-to-10m-users-building-chatgpt-work-akshay-nathan-openai-v6rnymbfw) · Latent Space · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
- [OpenAI plans ChatGPT ‘super app’](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-plans-chatgpt-super-app--8509grbg2) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
- [I put ChatGPT Work up against Claude Cowork, and the winner wasn't who I expected](https://daily.dev/posts/i-put-chatgpt-work-up-against-claude-cowork-and-the-winner-wasn-t-who-i-expected-kbas6kk3p) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 1 comments

---

Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code)

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