OpenAI's AI Agents Cross 10M Users｜Codex + ChatGPT Work Double in Three Weeks, Head-to-Head With Anthropic Cowork
TL;DR
OpenAI's agent products (Codex + ChatGPT Work) hit 10M users, roughly double early-July levels, going head-to-head with Anthropic Cowork.
OpenAI on July 22 announced — its two AI agent products have crossed a combined 10 million users. Codex (coding) + ChatGPT Work (general task handling) have roughly doubled from early July. Bloomberg first, Wallstreetcn Chinese.
The main driver of the doubling — ChatGPT Work launched this month, positioned closely to Anthropic's Cowork (collaborative agent). This is the direct fuel for the 10M number.
Breaking down — early July 5M → July 22 10M, 100% growth in 3 weeks. Compared to ChatGPT's first-month 1M, half the pace; compared to Codex's year-one 1M in 2021, 12x faster — subscription-tier agent enterprise adoption already outpaces any prior AI product.
Anthropic's cadence — Cowork beta mid-June 2026, no user count disclosed. Claude Team pricing dropped from 5-seat to 2-seat minimum (see #391) — clearly designed to funnel to Cowork. Anthropic obviously views Cowork as its new growth engine, and OpenAI's 10M announcement is a precise counterpunch.
Codex's independent trajectory — API opened in February, GPT-5.6 Sol released in May, context cut from 372K to 272K in July (see #359) yet held high usage — proving developer stickiness on Codex is extreme, context shrink didn't shake core users. Cursor 3.0, Windsurf 2, GitHub Copilot Agent all chase; Codex holds via fine-tuning + official API rate limits.
Commercial angle — ChatGPT Enterprise $60/month/seat, Codex $200/month. If 20% of 10M users pay, monthly revenue $1.2-2.4B. Anthropic outspent OpenAI on Q2 lobbying (see this batch's lobbying story) — Anthropic lobbies in Washington, OpenAI pulls users in market. The competition has moved past pure tech.
via Bloomberg / 华尔街见闻
The main driver of the doubling — ChatGPT Work launched this month, positioned closely to Anthropic's Cowork (collaborative agent). This is the direct fuel for the 10M number.
Breaking down — early July 5M → July 22 10M, 100% growth in 3 weeks. Compared to ChatGPT's first-month 1M, half the pace; compared to Codex's year-one 1M in 2021, 12x faster — subscription-tier agent enterprise adoption already outpaces any prior AI product.
Anthropic's cadence — Cowork beta mid-June 2026, no user count disclosed. Claude Team pricing dropped from 5-seat to 2-seat minimum (see #391) — clearly designed to funnel to Cowork. Anthropic obviously views Cowork as its new growth engine, and OpenAI's 10M announcement is a precise counterpunch.
Codex's independent trajectory — API opened in February, GPT-5.6 Sol released in May, context cut from 372K to 272K in July (see #359) yet held high usage — proving developer stickiness on Codex is extreme, context shrink didn't shake core users. Cursor 3.0, Windsurf 2, GitHub Copilot Agent all chase; Codex holds via fine-tuning + official API rate limits.
Commercial angle — ChatGPT Enterprise $60/month/seat, Codex $200/month. If 20% of 10M users pay, monthly revenue $1.2-2.4B. Anthropic outspent OpenAI on Q2 lobbying (see this batch's lobbying story) — Anthropic lobbies in Washington, OpenAI pulls users in market. The competition has moved past pure tech.
via Bloomberg / 华尔街见闻
