OpenAI Codex Reaches 90 Million Installs in Just One Week
A coding AI agent recorded an impressive 90 million installs in just one week, marking a major surge in adoption. Rather than reflecting lifetime downloads, that figure represents activity across only seven days. This sharp increase followed the launch of GPT-5.5, which significantly improved the tool’s efficiency and expanded its capabilities.
The newer model increased the context window to 400,000 tokens while reducing token consumption compared to the previous version. As a result, developers can handle larger coding tasks with improved speed and lower computational overhead.
Browser Access Expands Practical Use
A newly launched Chrome extension has broadened the coding assistant’s usefulness beyond traditional software development tasks. Through the desktop app’s Plugins menu, users can grant the tool browser access for testing web applications, gathering information from signed-in platforms, and using Chrome DevTools without interrupting their active browsing session.
Previously, the built-in browser could only access localhost previews and public web pages. However, it could not interact with platforms requiring user authentication. The Chrome integration solves that limitation by allowing access to logged-in environments when needed.
The system automatically selects between dedicated plugins, browser access, or the built-in browser depending on the task. Meanwhile, users can manually trigger Chrome support with prompt commands. Although the extension requests broad permissions, it still requires explicit approval before interacting with any new website, adding an extra layer of control.
Security, Memory, and Automation Improvements
The rapid growth also reflects broader platform enhancements. Security tools now help developers scan repositories, create project-specific threat models, and suggest patches for verified vulnerabilities. During beta testing, the system analyzed more than 1.2 million commits and uncovered hundreds of critical issues along with thousands of high-severity risks.
At the same time, automation capabilities have become more advanced. Users can now continue long-running tasks by reusing earlier conversation threads, which helps preserve project context across sessions. Additionally, a preview memory feature allows the assistant to retain preferences, corrections, and workflow conventions.
Greg Brockman described GPT-5.5 as “a faster, sharper thinker for fewer tokens” during the model’s April launch. Consequently, these combined upgrades appear to be driving stronger adoption among developers and enterprise users alike.
