High GPU usage and system lag with long conversation context on macOS
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Feb 7, 2026 by Eric-Terminal Closed Feb 7, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
260206.1448 (565)
What subscription do you have?
Team
What issue are you seeing?
When the conversation context gets long, the GPU usage spikes to 100%. This causes the entire system to lag, and the MacBook Air gets very hot. The UI response becomes very slow.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Start a new conversation
Keep chatting until the context is very long (e.g., after 50+ messages).
Observe the GPU usage in Activity Monitor or Stats.
What is the expected behavior?
The App should maintain low GPU usage regardless of context length, and the UI should remain smooth.
Additional information
Device: MacBook Air M1(2020), RAM: 8GB
macOS version: 26.2
3 Comments
Thanks for the bug report. We're tracking this in #10432.
The issue I had reported was locked for comments. so I am adding an update here.
I have uninstalled the app (latest mac os, desktop codex app) and cleaned up left overs using AppCleaner. ~/.codex remained in place. I had downloaded it from the initial release and kept using the in-app update.
After redownloading, GPU stays in check for a small task, which included multiple steps with spinners.
This used to throw CodexHelper's GPU usage towards 100%.
I don't know if this is a final fix, as I haven't created new long conversations, but opening older ones still has the GPU in low usage.
Hopefully doing a clean reinstall (or maybe the latest build) are the fixes for this.
@schniper, please don't post to closed issues. If you can't find an active issues that is similar to what you're seeing, please open a new one and fill out the bug template.
The reason I lock issues is to discourage or prevent necroposts.