- Codex has been downloaded over a million times, users have increased 60% in a week
- It remains free for all users, but Free/Go plans may face limits
- Deep Research gets a new viewer and better control
It’s been barely more than a week since OpenAI launched its dedicated Codex Mac app, and it’s already received more than a million downloads.
Overall, Codex users also grew 60% in the week following the release of GPT-5.3 Codex, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is so pleased with the initial uptake that Free and Go users will continue to have free access to Codex after its launch campaign.
“We will keep the Codex available to Free/Go users after this campaign,” Altman confirmed in an X post.
Codex remains free, Deep Research gets a makeover
As expected, Free and Go subscribers are likely to face tighter limits than higher paying subscribers. “We may have to reduce the limits there, but we want everyone to be able to try the Codex and start building,” Altman added.
Separately, OpenAI also shared a new video showing Deep Research’s makeover on YouTube.
Visually, Deep Research now includes a full-screen report viewer, allowing users to open reports in separate windows from the chat interface. Like a well-formatted official report, it includes a table of contents in the left panel for easier navigation, with hyperlinks and anchor tags, and a source list in the right panel for better verification and fact-checking.
Users can also download their report as a PDF or Word document to view and edit offline.
Functionally, OpenAI has also made it possible to instruct ChatGPT to focus on specific websites and connected apps for each Deep Research project. And on-the-fly edits allow you to change the research scope, add sources and refine details along the way instead of having to wait for it to be finished.
The changes have been made available to Plus and Pro users with immediate effect – Go and Free users are also expecting the changes soon.
The changes were also detailed in the ChatGPT release notes confirming the changes on February 10th. A minor update to the existing GPT-5.2 model was also announced, making the responses “more measured and grounded in tone.”
“We updated GPT-5.2 (the current model) in ChatGPT today. Not a huge change, but hopefully you’ll find it a little better,” Altman added in a separate X post.
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