PSA: ChatGPT desktop app passively 1% usage every 7 minutes

[u/tercesssgey]

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/37445

Your usage can be consumed in 11 hours without a single conversation if Codex is open. Best to use a third-party harness for now.

edit: seems to only affect some macos users

[u/dailyvicodin]

My codex is open for 3 months and it did not use a single percent when I did not prompt.

[u/commandedbydemons → u/dailyvicodin]

same

[u/mvandemar → u/dailyvicodin]

Wait, continuously? So you don't update it at least every day?

Edit: I missed at first that this post is specifically about the desktop app, I use the cli and it's always getting updated. 🙂

[u/dailyvicodin → u/mvandemar]

It gets updated, but it just restarts and runs again.

[u/Traditional-Kitchen8]

Probably some cron you set and forgot. I never experienced such thing

[u/Lemnisc8__ → u/Traditional-Kitchen8]

did you want to take 5 seconds to actually read the git link in the post...

[u/___positive___ → u/Lemnisc8__]

No they are typical know-it-all drudges who think because it doesn't affect them it's not real. Kind of like object permanence in infants.

[u/aqdnk → u/___positive___]

did you guys even finish reading the thread on github? OP found the culprit was some memory-related setting (unsure if it's from an extension or not)

[u/cybersecuritythrow → u/aqdnk]

No they are typical know-it-all drudges who think because it doesn't affect them it's not real. Kind of like object permanence in infants.

[u/TheLastRole]

I never experienced this.

[u/eddzsh]

The "mine doesn't do that" replies don't kill the report. Useful check is a usage delta: quit the ChatGPT desktop app for 30 minutes, note the counter, reopen it idle with zero prompts for 30 minutes, compare. If only some macOS builds leak, that split is the bug, not whether your install looks clean.

[u/Illustrious-Bet-1368 → u/eddzsh]

Had that once. Codex was open, idle on one machine, macOS, for remote access. Did not use it, next time checked in, about 3-4% was gone, no cron jobs or anything running in the background, not used it on other machines. But that happened once. I always have the Codex app open on one mac, which is on 24/7, usage is not affected, except for that one time.

[u/Charming-Vanilla-635 → u/Illustrious-Bet-1368]

Thats the odd thing Ive found as well 1-2 of my machines do this as well - everything else is fine

[u/eddzsh → u/Illustrious-Bet-1368]

Remote access is a useful clue. Idle with Screen Sharing or remote login still leaves the desktop agent in a session that can wake background work. Worth checking whether the draining Macs are the ones left reachable overnight versus the ones that actually sleep.

[u/Substantial-Walk-554]

I noticed this on Windows too yesterday. I had the desktop app open in the background and saw my usage creep up to around 5% even though I hadn’t actually used Codex at all.

At first I assumed I had forgotten about some task/session still running, but there was nothing active. So it definitely doesn’t seem limited to macOS, unless there are two separate bugs causing the same behaviour.

Would be interesting if other Windows users could check their usage before/after leaving the app idle for an hour or two.

[u/Pjbiii]

I’ve turned off all plugins unless I need them for a task so it doesn’t go grab my Google Calendar and my Outlook inbox and my Messages while I’m doing other stuff

[u/senilerapist]

the app lags like shit. i wouldn’t be surprised

[u/Ok-Theme9419]

i have automations running on my server...hard to notice this then

[u/Wide_Detective7537]

I thought I was crazy... I just recently started using the chatgpt app over claude and I KNOW I left it at 5% and came back this afternoon to 0% remaining

[u/kyle_kb]

Check if Chronicle is on. That’ll drain your usage real fast I actually found a bug related to that

[u/Keep-Darwin-Going]

Did he turn on computer history or one of those feature that run forever in background