Unpacking ChatGPT Work: the Agent for a Billion Users

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work on July 9, an agent for knowledge work that hit 10M users in three weeks. It runs on the Codex harness inside a cloud microVM—Pro gets 8 CPUs, 20GB RAM, 64GB disk; Plus gets 14GB RAM—and connects to Slack, email, Drive, and hundreds of plugins. It produces sheets, docs, slides, and hosted web apps. Desktop offers local and cloud modes; local mode is essentially Codex without the code UI. Greg Brockman confirmed Work and Chat will merge by end of year, making this the future default for ChatGPT’s 1B weekly users.

Why it matters: ChatGPT Work hitting 10M users in three weeks marks a major agent deployment milestone. This external reconstruction unpacks the Codex VM specs, plugin ecosystem, and Memory architecture with solid detail. Score held at 82 rather than higher because it's an outsider analysis, ...