Abnormally high ram usage in mac app

Open 💬 13 comments Opened Apr 19, 2026 by lauorbit
💡 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 26.415.40636 (1799)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

While using the Codex app, ram usage (by the content renderer) reached our 12 GBs, I noticed that when the codex app seemingly restarted/refreshed and the UI became non-responsive (even the time of the chat stopped updating)

<img width="518" height="360" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/79bbf2c0-2e42-4923-b658-26ac206b4e1b" />

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Session ID: 019da6df-0f3f-7941-932c-b42bf6f536da
Token limit usage:
5 hour usage limit: 78% left
Weekly usage limit: 29% left
Context windows: 162/258k (63%)

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

I waited around an hour, the usage was around 12 GBs all the time with CPU usage varying. After that, I killed the content renderer from activity monitor. App refreshed/restarted (same as before) and task had completed successfully.

View original on GitHub ↗

13 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #18567
  • #18545
  • #18568

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happyf-weallareeuropean · 2 months ago

was it both high ram and high cpu presist even launch/reopen the app?
that might half similar to #18463, just render proc no high ram like urs. but i did saw codex app use 29gb before i hit oom

happyf-weallareeuropean · 2 months ago

wait, but first time ever i observed this

<img width="343" height="134" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a8de786a-5ad8-454e-b83d-19496302ee56" />
indeed it use lot ram then usage now. codex app Version 26.417.41555 (1858)

matthabermehl · 2 months ago

I often get a MacOS system dialog popping up saying my system has run out of RAM. That's usually when Codex gets to about 20GB of RAM usage.

happyf-weallareeuropean · 2 months ago

@matthabermehl was cpu usage high too?

lauorbit · 2 months ago

@happyf-weallareeuropean It was high, but I do not remember exact numbers (around 80% or so). My laptop fans were pretty loud (I have a Macbook Pro M5, it takes heavy usage to push it to this fan noise level).

happyf-weallareeuropean · 2 months ago

@lauorbit mine today cpu really chill, but ram bulk at 1.6gb+
at least my macbook dont like macmini need to always plug in. just not sure what next moment it gone back. it looks like it have one more hidden trigger or what.

wousp112 · 2 months ago

I’m seeing a similar Renderer memory/performance issue on Codex Desktop for macOS.

Setup:

  • Mac with 16GB RAM
  • Codex Desktop version: 26.417.41555 (build 1858)
  • macOS version: macOS 26.4.1 (25E253)

What I observed:

  • With Memory enabled, Codex Desktop became very sluggish.
  • Renderer memory climbed noticeably, and opening multiple windows/threads made the app much worse.
  • After disabling Memory in Settings, the app became immediately smoother. I could open several windows without the same level of lag.
  • This looks like a strong A/B signal: Memory enabled makes the desktop app much heavier; Memory disabled improves it a lot.

Remaining issue:

  • Disabling Memory improves single-window usage, but multiple open threads still cause lag and Renderer CPU/RAM pressure.
  • My local ~/.codex/sessions directory is around 5.2GB.
  • The largest rollout file is around 207MB, with several others over 80-130MB.
  • So this may involve both Memory overhead and large local conversation history/thread switching overhead.

Current workaround:

  • Disable Memory
  • Restart Codex when Renderer usage climbs
  • Keep fewer threads/windows open
  • Avoid keeping very large old threads active

Happy to provide logs or a /feedback session ID if useful.

atyagi1-godaddy · 2 months ago

I got a pop up from mac that my system was running low on memory and I need to close some apps. The window showed ChatGpt app using 36GB of memory. I wish i had taken a screenshot.

atyagi1-godaddy · 1 month ago

I was able to take a screenshot this time.

<img width="796" height="942" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2757e906-548d-4742-a86d-a2645bfd8889" />

EcMarius · 1 month ago

same..

aleshh · 14 days ago

What's going on here? This has been an issue for at least 6 months. On my computer, when ChatGPT is open it steadily eats memory until restarted (right now it's at 26.5 GB!). On two occasions I've woken up my computer in the morning to find it completely hung, with ChatGPT at over 100 GB and the system kernel panicked and requiring a hard restart.

For now I'm adding ChatGPT to Quitter, but this seems like a good opportunity to try out Claude.

Toolenaar · 8 days ago

For me this happens everytime I use the @ function to reference a file, every single time codex/chatgpt will balloon to about 60GB before cooling down again.