Last updated: October 3, 2026
OpenAI Codex Sites is a ChatGPT feature that builds a website, web app, or game from a prompt (or from a project you already have) and hosts it, then gives you a URL. You do not rent a separate server. You describe the thing, review a private preview, and publish when you mean to.
OpenAI also calls it ChatGPT Sites and Sites. Three names, one feature. The guide is developers.openai.com/codex/sites.
What is OpenAI Codex Sites?
Sites is a dashboard, tracker, planner, board, gallery, internal tool, or a small game whose scores stick around. The launch post called it a canvas you share by URL. ChatGPT builds it and hosts it. A Site is separate from a ChatGPT Project, and it stays in your Sites list after the chat ends. Start from a prompt, or from a project already on your machine.
On the web, open More > Sites (the help center says start in Work). On the desktop app, start in Work or Codex. Say "website," or mention @Sites. Sites is not in the ChatGPT Classic app. Wrong app. The Codex CLI and IDE extension can edit local files. Create, save, deploy, share, and analytics stay in ChatGPT on the web or desktop.
When did Codex Sites launch?
June 2, 2026, in Codex for every role, tool, and workflow. It was a preview for Business and Enterprise, shared inside the workspace by URL. Enterprise admins had to turn it on. Shipped, then gated.
That post said more than 5 million people use Codex every week, and that non-developers were about 20% of them, growing more than 3x as fast as developers. Early partners, "as we build towards a sites partner ecosystem": Vercel, Wix, Base44, Replit, Lovable, Figma, Webflow, and Emergent. Naming them is not a button that publishes your Site onto their hosts.
FOMA wrote it up on June 4 in OpenAI launches Codex Sites. The guide now lists a public beta on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu. The coding agent called Codex is older. This page is only Sites.
How do you deploy a Codex Site?
Describe the audience, the job, and the data.
Review the preview. Edit site sends the owner or an editor back into ChatGPT. It does not change the live page by itself.
Save a version. That builds a deployable version and, for a local project, ties it to the Git commit. Saving stays offline.
Deploy a version. Every deployment URL is production. There is no staging link. The URL you send is the live one.
A new Site starts with the owner and workspace admins. You can widen that to selected people, invited outsiders (rolling out on Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise), the workspace, or the public. Enterprise public publishing is off by default. Business has Sites on by default. Enterprise turns Sites on per role.
Live addresses look like goblin-tales.openai.chatgpt.site, the example in the analytics docs. Owners can rename the slug (at least five characters, a lowercase letter, then letters, numbers, and single hyphens). The old URL redirects. A custom domain is separate: you bring one you own and add the DNS records Sites shows you. Custom domains are not available on Enterprise at launch.
Public Sites can add Sign in with ChatGPT. The server then sees the email, and sometimes a name. Do authorization in server code. More actions > Analytics shows unique visitors and page views, with no SDK. Enterprise-owned Sites do not get that analytics view.
What is hosting.json?
.openai/hosting.json links a local project to OpenAI's hosting. A web-only Site does not need the file, so leave it out.
The guide shows three fields for a database site with no file storage: project_id, d1 set to "DB", and r2 set to null. project_id can be missing until Sites provisions the project. d1 is the relational database for records the site should remember. r2 is object storage for uploads (metadata in D1, bytes in R2).
Do not put secrets in hosting.json. Put environment variables in the Site settings, then redeploy the saved version. D1 is capped at 10 GB. R2 has no fixed cap in the guide, though a plan limit can still block new storage. The runtime is HTTP, HTTPS, and WebSockets, not raw TCP. No data residency or inference residency at launch. Do not use Sites for health data, card numbers, children under 13 (or the local age of consent), or payments.
What is vinext, and how does Codex Sites use Cloudflare?
vinext is Cloudflare's Vite plugin for running Next.js on Workers. Cloudflare's docs, updated August 25, 2026, call it the default Next.js path onto Workers. It exists without Codex.
D1 and R2 are Cloudflare's SQL database and object storage. The public Sites guide uses those names, and the 10 GB D1 cap, and never says "Cloudflare" or "vinext."
The link is the skill Codex follows while building. A copy published June 3, 2026 says Sites hosts Cloudflare Worker-compatible modules and that the default starter is vinext. A later public copy of that same skill still says vinext, and that Sites owns the Cloudflare resources. A hosting.json file next to a vinext app matches that skill. The public guide does not document vinext's init command. If the skill and the guide disagree, trust the guide.
Is there a Codex Sites plugin?
Sites is not one of the June 2 role plugins (analytics, creative, sales, design, equity, banking). Those are app bundles. Sites was a separate preview. Same day, different product.
A Site can become a plugin. OpenAI's article says you add an MCP server, say what the tools may read or change, and the owner publishes. That publish creates a plugin you install and mention in chat. In Enterprise, Use plugins is on by default. Upload plugins and Create plugins with MCPs are off until an admin enables them.
The other way around: a private Business or Enterprise Site can read each visitor's connected apps, after an admin turns on Allow use in Sites. Sharing the Site does not share your logins. The plugin article says this hosting works on all plans. The Sites articles say Sites itself skips Free and Go. If the buttons disagree, believe the Sites screen.
How much does Codex Sites cost, and who can use it?
No separate price. Beta usage comes out of ChatGPT plan limits, which the product shows. A limit can block a new Site, new storage, or a busy public Site. You can still edit what you have.
Enterprise and Edu caps can differ by workspace.
As of October 3, 2026, the guide lists Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu. The plan article excludes Free and Go, and says Sites is not available in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK. Admins control creation and public publishing. Prices are on chatgpt.com/pricing.
How does Codex Sites compare with Lovable, v0, and Bolt?
Same job, different owner of the URL. Those tools sell "describe an app, get a running app." Sites does it inside ChatGPT, and OpenAI keeps the host.
Lovable is the closest, and it was on the partner list. Its site says it handles hosting, the backend, payments, and connectors, and that your code and data stay yours. It is still its own account.
v0 is Vercel's builder. Vercel was named. v0 was not. v0's homepage lets you use a ChatGPT plan inside v0, and the deploy stays on Vercel, not a chatgpt.site address.
Bolt builds from chat, picks a model, and can start from Figma or GitHub. It was not on the partner list. Shoppers still compare it.
Replit was named: agents, a database, and deploys, on a Replit account.
Lovable sells payments. Sites' own rules say not to take them.
Who should use Codex Sites?
Already paying for ChatGPT, and the output is a link? Use it. A review hub, a request board, a launch page, a game with scores in D1. Save, then deploy.
Skip it for a company site that needs an Enterprise custom domain, Enterprise analytics, data residency, payments, or visitors in the UK, Switzerland, or the EEA. Plus and Pro joined the beta after the June Business and Enterprise preview. OpenAI still runs the URL, D1, and R2.
Codex Sites alternatives
Lovable, when you want hosting, payments, and code you keep.
v0, when you want Vercel's builder and a Vercel deploy.
Bolt, when you want chat-to-app, model routing, and a Figma or GitHub start.
Replit, when you want an agent, a database, and deploys on Replit.
Cloudflare Workers with vinext, when you only wanted that build path. Sites is the managed version: hosting.json, plus ChatGPT's share button.
FOMA covered the launch on June 4 in OpenAI launches Codex Sites, and covered Cursor and coding agents. FOMA AI News is the Thursday read for builders who want the technical version of a launch like this.