OpenAI Agents API

The Agents API empowers applications to access the Codex platform via an OpenAI-managed service. OpenAI handles session management, orchestration, context compression, and recovery, while the application supplies tools and selects the execution environment. Agents can function within a sandbox, enabling code execution, file editing, connection to MCP servers, and artifact generation.

Usage of models is charged according to the selected model's API rates, and OpenAI-hosted sandboxes are billed at standard container rates. The Agents API revolves around four core concepts: initiating an OpenAI-hosted sandbox, sending input and receiving events from OpenAI, managing sandbox provisioning and management, and configuring session capabilities during session creation.

For a runtime comparison, refer to the Agents overview. The API preserves session state, allowing work to continue across turns without rebuilding conversation context. Sessions and published artifacts can be deleted when no longer required. Presently, the Agents API supports data residency solely within the United States and does not provide Zero Data Retention (ZDR) capability.

Selecting a self-hosted sandbox does not render the Agents API ZDR-eligible. Data residency and retention policies are detailed in the OpenAI platform's Data controls section.