OpenAI Operator
https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/
OpenAI's general-purpose browser agent — research preview launched January 2025 (US Pro tier). Built on the Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model that processes screenshots and emits mouse / keyboard actions; runs inside an OpenAI-hosted browser sandbox. Operator is the consumer product; the underlying CUA model is the substrate. Superseded by ChatGPT agent (launched 2025-07-17), which absorbed Operator's functionality as agent mode in ChatGPT; operator.chatgpt.com now redirects to ChatGPT agent mode.
Deprecated · Verified 2026-10-31 · fresh as of 2026-10-31 · 58 cited facts, 1 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- Consumer computer-use agent (browser-only) vendor fix
- Tier
- T1
- Section
- Computer-use & desktop agents
- Latest release
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- License
- not applicable — not OSS fix
- GitHub
- not applicable — no GitHub repo fix
- Pricing
- Bundled with ChatGPT Pro $200/mo vendor fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-31 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- commercial vendor fix
- Deployment locus
- computer-use vendor fix
When to use
Optimised for: Consumer-grade autonomous web tasks in OpenAI-hosted browser
Anti-fit: Not for desktop apps (browser-only); no self-host; US-only at launch
Pros & cons
Pros
First consumer-grade computer-use agent from a major lab; OpenAI distribution; benchmark numbers public.
Cons
US Pro-only at launch; browser-only; OpenAI-hosted (no self-host); takeover UX still rough.
Claims & capabilities
Released by OpenAI 2025-01-23 as research preview; powered by Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model; runs on OpenAI-hosted virtual browser.
Technical surface
- API surface
- Computer tool (type computer) in the Responses API; current docs use gpt-6.1-sol, with a migration guide from computer-use-preview
- Backend storage
- OpenAI-hosted browser session state; no durable cross-session memory by default
- Deployment
- Cloud (OpenAI-hosted browser sandbox) — no self-host
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- single-tenant per ChatGPT Pro account; sandboxed sessions
- MCP
- searched not found
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Compare OpenAI Operator with…
Alternatives to OpenAI Operator → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other computer-use & desktop agents in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Browser Use T1
Python library that turns any LLM into a browser agent — extracts DOM into a structured representation the LLM can act on (rather than pure screenshot). Browser Use Inc. raised $17M seed Q1 2025 (Felicis); cloud product at cloud.browser-use.com. Project is one of the most-starred browser-agent OSS repos.
- Stagehand T1
Open-source browser-automation framework by Browserbase (TypeScript core plus Python and Go SDKs). Mixes Playwright-style code with natural-language act/extract/observe; pairs with Browserbase Cloud.
- Hyperbrowser T2
Cloud-hosted headless browser API tuned for AI agents — captcha solving, stealth mode, session recordings. Y Combinator S24; pitched as a faster / cheaper Browserbase alternative. Used as substrate by agents that need browser execution but don't want to run their own Chromium fleet.
- UI-TARS T2
ByteDance Seed's open-source GUI-agent foundation model — released Jan 2025; trained end-to-end on screenshot → action pairs. Comes with UI-TARS-Desktop (Electron app) that runs the model against the user's screen. SOTA on OSWorld at release; weights on HuggingFace.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
- Skyvern T2
Open-source autonomous browser agent that uses computer vision + LLMs to navigate websites. Workflow-based: agents follow recorded plans that adapt to layout changes. Skyvern Inc. raised $4.5M seed (Sep-2024, Felicis lead). Self-hostable; cloud version on skyvern.com.
Sources (57 cited facts, 1 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is Consumer computer-use agent (browser-only) vendor
- What it does & what's distinct OpenAI's general-purpose browser agent — research preview launched January 2025 (US Pro … vendor
- Claims / benefits Released by OpenAI 2025-01-23 as research preview; powered by Computer-Using Agent (CUA)… vendor
- Modalities text + screen images + keyboard/mouse actions vendor
- Created 2025-01 vendor
- Mindshare Front-page HN / TechCrunch / Verge launch coverage Jan 2025 vendor
- Funding OpenAI parent — ~$157B val 2024-10; $40B round Mar-2025 ($300B val) vendor
- Customers / scale ChatGPT Pro subscribers ($200/mo); US-only at launch vendor
- Pricing Bundled with ChatGPT Pro $200/mo vendor
- Compliance SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA via OpenAI parent vendor
- Data handling Watch-mode: takeover for credentials; opt-out from training vendor
- Deployment Cloud (OpenAI-hosted browser sandbox) — no self-host vendor
- HQ US (OpenAI, San Francisco) vendor
- Founders / pedigree OpenAI; CEO Sam Altman; Operator launched under Kevin Weil (CPO) vendor
- Performance OSWorld 38.1%; WebArena 58.1%; WebVoyager 87% per OpenAI launch eval vendor
- API surface Computer tool (type computer) in the Responses API; current docs use gpt-6.1-sol, with a… vendor
- Backend storage OpenAI-hosted browser session state; no durable cross-session memory by default vendor
- Multi-tenancy single-tenant per ChatGPT Pro account; sandboxed sessions vendor
- Encryption TLS in transit; AES-256 at rest vendor
- SSO / RBAC via ChatGPT Enterprise (SSO/SAML); Operator preview tied to Pro account vendor
- Namespace primitives per-ChatGPT account vendor
- Forgetting policy Sessions clear by default; user-initiated history delete vendor
- Validated verticals browser tasks: shopping, booking, form-fill, research vendor
- Time to running <1min (ChatGPT Pro web UI) vendor
- Anti-fit Not for desktop apps (browser-only); no self-host; US-only at launch vendor
- Optimised for Consumer-grade autonomous web tasks in OpenAI-hosted browser vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure CUA model; OpenAI Responses API; Chromium sandbox vendor
- Pros First consumer-grade computer-use agent from a major lab; OpenAI distribution; benchmark… vendor
- Cons US Pro-only at launch; browser-only; OpenAI-hosted (no self-host); takeover UX still rou… vendor
- Project & sources openai.com/index/introducing-operator; platform.openai.com/docs/guides/tools-computer-use vendor
- obs-langsmith no vendor
- obs-opentelemetry no vendor
- obs-datadog no vendor
- obs-helicone no vendor
- obs-weave no vendor
- obs-langfuse no vendor
- obs-arize no vendor
- obs-custom Closed consumer product; no observability surface vendor
- cost-token-budget no vendor
- cost-prompt-caching no vendor
- cost-semantic-caching no vendor
- cost-batching no vendor
- cost-model-routing no vendor
- cost-streaming-only no vendor
- cost-observability-cost-attribution no vendor
- eval-langsmith-evals no vendor
- eval-braintrust no vendor
- eval-weights-and-biases-agent no vendor
- eval-helicone-evals no vendor
- eval-custom-test-harness yes vendor
- eval-human-loop no vendor
- eval-production-traffic-replay no vendor
- capability-benchmark-sources osworld: 31.4% (computer-use-preview, 100 steps, OSWorld-Verified leaderboard entry 2025… third-party
- architecture-deployment-locus computer-use vendor
- licensing-bucket commercial vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-27
- Lifecycle first recorded as “superseded”
Related systems
References (1)
- OpenAI GPT family (GPT-5 / GPT-4o / o3 / o4) depends on at runtime — backend-storage cell: OpenAI-hosted browser session state; no durable cross-session memory by default