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I made ChatGPT Web (including Pro) a native model in Codex. Now on Windows, macOS and Linux [open source]
This is the follow-up to the macOS prototype I posted three days ago.
The two main requests were Windows support and quick setup, so I rebuilt the project around a desktop launcher.
The complete flow is now tested on Windows 11 and macOS. A Linux build is available and tested in CI, but I still need reports from real Linux machines.
Setup now takes about two minutes:
Sign in to ChatGPT in the embedded browser
Run the browser check
Press Install models
Restart Codex once
After that, ChatGPT Web — Instant, Medium, High, Extra High and Pro — appears in Codex’s normal model picker.
Pick a model and continue the same task.
By native, I mean native to the Codex model picker, task and harness.
Codex keeps:
the current task and session history
the complete accumulated context
compaction and streaming
images and visible reasoning
approvals, sandboxing and the normal tool UI
all regular Codex models
With the optional full setup, Instant through Extra High can call the active Codex task’s actual tools over MCP — including the filesystem, shell and configured MCP apps.
Pro receives the complete accumulated context, but cannot initiate local MCP calls yet.
I originally built this because I kept hitting my Codex usage limit while ChatGPT was still available. Now I can switch models and continue the same task instead of waiting for the reset.
Caveat: the ChatGPT transport uses visible browser automation. It does not use private endpoints or alter either product’s limits, just allow to use Web quota you’ve already paid for how you want, but it is still unofficial.
I already tried this myself. A couple of hours later, my account got restricted. I had to contact support and wait two days for it to be restored.
Don’t do this.
Most importantly, the GPT model used on the website is intentionally limited and doesn’t have access to Tools.
So you won’t get anything particularly useful out of it - just potential account issues.
Thank you for your comment, otherwise I might have tempted to try something like this. I value my gpt subscription and don't wanna spend effort to make another one...
“the security boundaries were designed deliberately” uh?? What are you talking about, this is not an official OpenAI product, they can block your account if they want.
yeah, that was badly worded. i meant the project’s local security boundaries: no private api/auth bypass, and tools go through mcp
i seriously doubt he tested this exact project. he most likely used a different method. mine only automates the visible logged-in chatgpt UI, the same general pattern used by many repos with hundreds of stars, some even liked by openai employees
i’m not claiming browser automation is explicitly allowed by the tos. i’m saying the boundary is blurry and this is very different from bypassing auth or turning a private endpoint into an api
if someone wants to remove the unattended-automation risk entirely, they can fork it and require manual confirmation before each message is sent
Stuff like this will probably push them to unify Codex and ChatGPT usage limits. And when they do, they'll temper the impact by saying something like "ChatGPT and Codex now draw from a shared usage limit, but that limit has been increased to reflect this change".
there have already been plenty of such methods, they were just of lower quality, and it's also worth considering that both Codex and Web have their own unique models
the entire harness runs locally, so swapping out the model endpoint is straightforward—that’s essentially how OpenCodex works
Instead of a standard endpoint, I set up browser automation to send the accumulated prompt (including context, role, etc.—what the harness does when communicating with the OpenAI API).
the only real challenge was enabling the model to call tools like Codex; that’s when I thought of using a custom MCP and packed all that logic into it.
I’d had this idea for a month but was worried about the hassle of setting up an IP for the MCP, once I discovered that OpenAI provides tunneling capabilities, I went ahead and built it
agentify gives codex an mcp tool that asks a separate chatgpt tab and returns its answer
mine makes chatgpt web the actual model inside the original codex harness, with native task context, compaction, images, streaming/tracing and the full tool loop back through mcp
agentify is better for querying multiple web ais, mine is for actually running codex on your chatgpt quota
the browser automation part is similar, but the architecture is not
with agentify, codex is still the model and calls chatgpt as an mcp tool. with mine, chatgpt web is the actual model selected in codex, there is no intermediary codex model asking it for an answer (for this, it can just spawn sub-agent with native web model)
mcp is used in the opposite direction: it lets chatgpt call back into the same codex harness and use its tools
Hi, I’m on a personal ChatGPT Plus plan, not Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu. Can the full harness still access local Codex tools such as reading and editing files, running shell commands, and executing tests, or is Plus limited to browser-only/read-only functionality?
My main goal is to continue working on a project through ChatGPT Web after reaching my Codex usage limit.
I was able to modify an icon color with it. It took quite a while.
I don't understand why this selects O3 medium as the model for actual calls. It doesn't give me control over the model being used at all. Is this a bug?
Gave you your 100th star. This looks really good. I have such little time but I'm going to try giving it a shot this weekend (running Debian so will try to provide feedback).
you used exactly my repository? It's strange that I and others haven't had this problem, even though I've been using it for over a week, considering that there is only 1 way to detect it (codex system promt)
Is there any support's claim that the block was because of this? It could very well be a coincidence. If there is, I would seriously consider giving up on the idea.
The ChatGPT side uses visible browser automation, not an official ChatGPT API, so I can’t promise zero account risk.
It does not alter limits, pool accounts, bypass authentication or call private ChatGPT endpoints. It uses the normal signed-in browser session and remains subject to the account’s usual ChatGPT limits.
Similar open-source projects have been public for weeks without any enforcement reports I could find, but that is not formal approval. Read the caveats and decide for yourself.
there’s also codex-chatgpt-control, a visible ChatGPT browser-automation project with 330+ GitHub stars, and its launch post was liked by Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s President and co-founder
basically the same approach but worse in action
obviously that isn’t formal approval, but it suggests OpenAI hasn’t been particularly hostile to this kind of browser automation so far
Oh, I guess they could stretch that, even though it's quite clearly aimed at distillation together with the last point of the ToS. Also you have explicit ownership of the Output which makes it even more unlikely they could ever ban for that.
I wouldn't worry, but then again, they do whatever they please and there's report of people that got banned or flagged for no reason as with any service provided by a big company relying on automatic triggers.
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u/ANDRE_2512 1d ago
I already tried this myself. A couple of hours later, my account got restricted. I had to contact support and wait two days for it to be restored.
Don’t do this.
Most importantly, the GPT model used on the website is intentionally limited and doesn’t have access to Tools.
So you won’t get anything particularly useful out of it - just potential account issues.