macOS desktop: idle Codex stays at multiple GB with leftover Renderer and Computer Use processes #47519

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

26.915.31945 (build 9922, ChatGPT.app / com.openai.codex). Codex Framework 153.0.8010.48.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT / Codex desktop (paid).

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex desktop app (the ChatGPT macOS app, not the CLI) keeps a large idle working set after work is finished.

With no agent thread running and no built-in browser session open, the app still holds on the order of 1–2 GB in ordinary use, and a snapshot on this machine right now is about 3.9 GB RSS across ChatGPT/Codex helper processes. Activity Monitor shows several Codex (Renderer) processes left behind. One renderer alone is about 844 MB. Ten renderer processes together are about 2.0 GB. SkyComputerUseService is still resident at about 173 MB even though Computer Use / the built-in browser is not in use.

This is a desktop-app process-lifetime / idle-baseline problem. The CLI is not the surface.

Claude’s desktop app exposes a similar coding-agent surface and does not leave this kind of idle multi-GB resident set after work stops.

Related but not the same report:

• Codex Renderer is consuming excessive memory #38176 is about renderer growth on long conversations.
• [macOS Desktop] Renderer memory growth, repeated reconnects and lost steered messages #45497 is about renderer growth during a long running task.
• ChatGPT takes too much memory #43828 is Windows startup RAM.

This report is: macOS idle leftover processes after threads and the built-in browser are gone.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open the Codex desktop app on macOS (ChatGPT.app).
2. Use it normally (threads, maybe Computer Use / built-in browser at some point).
3. Stop every running thread. Close the built-in browser. Leave the app open.
4. In Activity Monitor or ps, look at Codex (Renderer), Codex (Service), Resources/codex, and SkyComputerUseService.

Observed on this machine just now (RSS, ChatGPT/Codex helpers only; no other apps counted):

Totals from that snapshot:

• ChatGPT/Codex exclusive RSS: ~3.87 GB across 68 processes
• Codex (Renderer): 10 processes, ~2.01 GB
• Codex (Service): 4 processes, ~346 MB
• leftover browser_crashpad_handler processes still exist from framework 152.0.7977.83 after the app has moved to 153.0.8010.48

What is the expected behavior?

After the last thread stops and the built-in browser is closed, unused renderer, Computer Use, and node helpers should exit. Idle RAM should fall back to a small desktop-app baseline, not stay at multiple gigabytes.

Additional information

• Surface: Codex GUI / ChatGPT.app on macOS. Not codex CLI.
• The high RSS is visible while the app is only sitting in the dock / menu. No prompt is running.
• Happy to capture Activity Monitor + a sample of the large renderer if useful.