High GPU usage when app is on screen Mac

Resolved 💬 10 comments Opened Mar 28, 2026 by jdrharrison-ai Closed Jul 2, 2026

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Version 26.325.31654 (1272)

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

I am experiencing very high (between 50-90%) GPU usage when codex is working and is displayed on my screen. The usage drops to almost nothing after minimizing it or completely covering it with another window. It also stops when it is no longer actively running. This behavior has not changed with any update. It is causing excessive battery drain on my m5 MacBook Pro.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

It happens every single time I use it and it is "thinking" or "exploring" etc, and is displaying on my screen.

What is the expected behavior?

No or minimal GPU usage

Additional information

Mac OS 26.3.1 and im using an m5 MacBook Pro with 24gb of ram.

View original on GitHub ↗

10 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#15397

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homm · 3 months ago

I think I have found a reason: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/16857

RedesignedRobot · 3 months ago

Root cause confirmed in #16857 — the thinking/shimmer animation keeps Chromium's compositor ticking at VSync rate indefinitely. Full profiling data in this comment.

Workaround: launch with --force-prefers-reduced-motion to kill the animation.

ccaruntu · 2 months ago

I can reproduce a very similar issue on a different macOS setup, and in my case it does not depend on Stage Manager.

Environment:

Codex Desktop: 26.417.41555 (build 1858)
macOS: 15.5 (24F74)
Hardware: MacBook Air, Apple M2, 16 GB RAM
Stage Manager: disabled (com.apple.WindowManager GloballyEnabled = 0)

What I observed locally:

With the Codex window visible, Activity Monitor showed sustained local load from the UI side rather than just background task work. In one sample I saw roughly:
Codex Helper (Renderer): 27.6% CPU
codex app-server: 12.2% CPU
WindowServer: 17.9% CPU
After hiding the Codex app, the renderer and GPU process dropped to ~0% CPU in the follow-up sample.

This makes it look more like a rendering/compositing issue tied to the visible app window than a Stage Manager-only problem. The practical behavior matches this issue closely: keeping Codex on screen makes the machine run hotter, while hiding/minimizing it drops the load significantly.

So this may be broader than "Stage Manager preview" and may affect normal on-screen rendering on macOS as well.

minured · 2 months ago

Amazing workaround: don’t display the desktop app.

Since this has been known since March 28, can we get a real fix status, or is “minimize Codex” the final answer for macOS?

jdrharrison-ai · 2 months ago

it has only gotten worse for me since the recent updates, especially when using the in-app browser. It chews through my battery, it is extremely frustrating.

thisislvca · 2 months ago

Same, I have 4 projects open at the same time, the thinking animation uses 50% gpu on an M4 Pro (maxed out)

Mertcikla · 1 month ago

I am having the same issues and due to this codex is unusable for me. I can't have a useless animation shorten my battery life to a quarter. I am being forced to use the cli due to this.

ganwumeng · 1 month ago

Any update? Still the same performance issue in the latest version.

chrissmartin · 27 days ago

@tibo-openai Dude, i mentioned this on tweet. Please do fix the GPU sprawl on random animation elements. Atleast give a lite more or something to disable all the animations.