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[Bug]: Massive CPU usage (100%+) and overheating (100°C) on M4 Mac Air - Version 260208.1016 #11124
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
260208.1016
What subscription do you have?
no
What issue are you seeing?
Immediately upon launching the Codex desktop app, the CPU usage spikes to over 100% and system temperature reaches 100°C+, even when the app is idle and no tasks are running. This makes the app unusable and causes severe thermal throttling on the M4 chip.
Environment
Codex Version: 260208.1016
Device: MacBook Air (M4, 2025/2026)
OS: macOS Sequoia (or your current version)
Installation Method: Auto-update
Steps to Reproduce
Launch Codex App version 260208.1016.
Observe CPU usage in Activity Monitor immediately (without entering any prompts).
System temperature rapidly climbs to 100°C+.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
launch
What is the expected behavior?
No response
Additional information
No response
Activity
ruib commentedon Feb 9, 2026
same device, same issue after updating to this version.
bandundu commentedon Feb 10, 2026
Encountering the same issue on 260208.1016 on M4 MacMini. Running macOS Squoia 15.7.3
STAlfsen commentedon Feb 11, 2026
Same issue with macOS Sequoia version 15.7.3, M4 Max Macbook.
Tried downgrading to 260206.1448, issue still persisted.
EDIT:
Downgraded to 260205.1301 (554) - Issue is not present in this version. So it was the 260206.1448 update that introduced the issue for me.
etraut-openai commentedon Feb 14, 2026
We've made a number of perf improvements in the past week. Are you still seeing this with the latest version of the app?
m-rodin commentedon Feb 15, 2026
I see similar issues in a project that contains a data folder with a large number of files/artifacts. In a smaller project, everything works well and remains stable.
jwtor7 commentedon Feb 16, 2026
Same issue here. Ran some diagnostics and found a clear reproduce + workaround.
Setup: Codex desktop app sitting idle at a "Do you want to make these changes?" confirmation dialog. "Thinking" label visible. No active generation, no file operations — completely static UI.
CPU with window visible
Key finding
Minimizing drops Codex from ~66% to ~2.5% CPU. The UI was completely static both times — this confirms it's a render loop that only stops when macOS skips compositing for minimized windows.
Likely cause
A
requestAnimationFrameor CSS animation loop (probably the "Thinking" indicator and/or streaming text renderer) that runs continuously even when nothing is changing on screen. The app doesn't appear to use the Page Visibility API to throttle when idle.Workaround
Minimize the Codex window when you're not actively looking at it.
Environment
ps -eo pid,pcpu,pmem,comm -randsudo powermetricslewismoss commentedon Jul 14, 2026
Hey did you find any solution to this? If I don't command-H my Codex window (no matter what it's doing) my macbook air because extremely hot to the point that it's physcially unsuable (it stops even playing audio and completely freezes).
pawelkwaczynski commentedon Aug 14, 2026
Not a fix for the underlying CPU usage, but a hardware mitigation that works today: an external thermal guard that pauses the hot process with SIGSTOP at a chip threshold and resumes it after cooldown. On my M4 Pro a pause drops the chip from ~89C to ~60C in ~20s and the paused work continues exactly where it stopped. It also ships a pre-exec hook for agent CLIs (the same stdin-JSON/exit-2 contract Codex hooks use), so heavy commands can be forced under supervision. MIT, macOS/Apple Silicon: https://github.com/pawelkwaczynski/coffee-paladin