OpenAI launches Agents API in public beta for developers
OpenAI has made its Agents API available as a public beta, giving outside developers access to the same infrastructure that powers Codex and ChatGPT agents. The API supports cloud-based agents that can operate autonomously for extended periods, run code, and pass tasks to sub-agents. Pricing is based solely on token consumption, with Cloudflare, Vercel, and Oracle providing optional sandbox environments.
WHY IT MATTERS ↘By exposing the same agent runtime behind Codex and ChatGPT, OpenAI turns agent orchestration into a metered API, pushing competitors to differentiate on reliability, sandboxing, and cost control rather than model quality alone. The token-only pricing also makes long-running autonomous and sub-agent workflows financially variable, raising governance and budget concerns for teams deploying them in production.