Rank, 14 days: 119 on the Codex sheet
15 people reported
All time, since Oct 7, including 6 thumbs-up on GitHub.
Desktop backend memory and process buildup
“The PC became sluggish; fully quitting ChatGPT removed the tree and the system was immediately responsive again.”
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3 bugs in this theme
- Lingering MCP helper processesHas a workaround9 people
- Helper processes accumulateNo workaround yet4 people
- App-server memory balloonsNo workaround yet2 people
What's included
- Bundled app-server resident memory grows to tens of GiB, ending in an out-of-memory kill of the app on Linux
- App-server memory footprint on macOS climbs from 8 GiB to over 20 GiB shortly after launch, with heavy swap
- MCP, Computer Use, CUA and node_repl helper processes pile up per thread or fork and stay alive after work ends
- Hundreds of Node helpers and many GiB of private memory under one app-server slow sessions and the whole system
- On macOS, idle helper and renderer growth saturates RAM and swap and drives high WindowServer CPU
Not included
- App-server keeping TCP connections to the ChatGPT backend open in CLOSE_WAIT
- Slowness or stalls not tied to memory or process growth
Original reports9, newest first
- [Windows Desktop 26.1029.7803.0] One codex.exe app-server accumulates ~140 idle helpers (39 node_repl, 20 app-tools MCP, 20 computer-use node) over 42 hoursOn GitHub#59757
- [Windows] Background forks after turn completion retain MCP Node process pools (14 verified lingering processes)On GitHub#56482
- Windows desktop app: app-server starts a new set of stdio MCP servers for every thread it loads and never stops themOn GitHub#56335
- [macOS] Codex Desktop: Computer-use subprocess accumulation, excessive memory footprint and severe UI slowdownOn GitHub#55887
- Codex Desktop on macOS: unbounded helper process growth (85 procs, 84 MCP/Computer Use helpers, 25 renderers) saturates 16 GB RAM and drives sustained WindowServer CPUOn GitHub#54461
- [Windows 26.1007] One stdio MCP process set per thread; 13 sets / 353 processes / ~9.6 GiB under a single app-server, reclamation lags creationOn GitHub#53285
- [macOS][app-server 0.162.0-alpha.2] Footprint grows from 8.1G to 20G shortly after launch, with 24.4G peak and severe swap activityOn GitHub#52343
- [Linux Desktop] Bundled app-server reaches 44.6 GiB RSS and triggers global OOM with two long-running threadsOn GitHub#51947
- [Windows 26.1002.6548.0] Codex Desktop accumulates repeated MCP/CUA/node_repl process batches, reaching 200 Node helpers and ~11.6 GB private memoryOn GitHub#51649