OpenAI appears to be preparing for an early release of its agent tool, Operator. Updates to ChatGPT’s code base indicate that Operator might be introduced as a research preview for users on the $200 Pro subscription plan.
While these updates haven’t been officially announced, a user on X, known as Choi, identified references to Operator in ChatGPT’s client-side code.
Here are some notable discoveries:
- Multiple references were found pointing to the URL operator.chatgpt.com, which currently redirects to ChatGPT’s main page.
- A new popup will reportedly encourage users to upgrade their plans, stating, “Operator is currently only available to Pro users as an early research preview.”
- The Pro plan benefits page will soon include “Access to research preview of Operator” as a listed feature.
Operator is believed to be a general-purpose AI agent capable of automating multi-step tasks within a web browser. Examples of potential uses include following someone on LinkedIn, logging expenses in Concur, assigning tasks in Asana, or updating a prospect’s status in Salesforce. Such tasks, typically requiring multiple clicks, could be handled through a single instruction to the agent.
Reports from The Information suggest that Operator could launch as early as this week, and recent updates imply that OpenAI is ready for a public rollout.
Unlike Anthropic’s AI model, which uses a “Computer Use” API to control local devices like a mouse and keyboard, Operator is expected to function directly on ChatGPT’s website. This suggests that OpenAI will likely run a web browser on its servers to execute tasks without interacting with users’ local machines.
Operator represents a sandboxed implementation of OpenAI’s broader agentic framework, showcasing the company’s advancements in enabling AI to perform complex tasks. It will be interesting to see if OpenAI provides further details about the underlying technology behind Operator.
