OpenAI adds computer use to its Agents API with a hosted browser and sign-in flow

What OpenAI announced

OpenAI added computer use to the Agents API on 29 September 2026, the day of its DevDay event. The changelog entry says agents can complete tasks in an OpenAI-hosted browser, with website access approvals and sign-in handled by the developer's application. The Agents API itself entered public beta on 10 September 2026 as a managed Codex harness in which OpenAI runs session orchestration, context compaction and recovery.

The computer use guide describes the setup. A developer adds the computer_use tool to the agent, sets the environment type to openai_hosted and enables the desktop. The agent then navigates sites and uses what it sees in the browser to choose its next step. Browser actions appear as computer_use_call items in the session output, and screenshots are left out of API output unless include_screenshots is set. The guide's examples use GPT-6 Astra.

How approvals and sign-in work

The browser asks for the user's approval before it opens each new website origin, public sites included, and turning on network access does not count as approval. Only the main agent can request sign-in, not subagents. When it does, the application renders a form from the request's fields and sends the values through a dedicated event. OpenAI says those values stay outside the model's input and are left out of session history. The flow supports email addresses, passwords and verification codes, but not passkeys or QR-code sign-in. Each submission can carry up to six field values, and an authentication request expires after five minutes.

The guide also sets limits on what developers should trust. Website content is to be treated as untrusted and cannot grant permission. OpenAI notes that asking for confirmation through a function tool depends on the agent choosing to call it, so an app that must guarantee a check before purchases or destructive changes should restrict the hosted browser or use a browser runtime it controls.

Why it matters

With the Responses API computer tool, OpenAI's general computer use guide says the developer's application supplies a driver that performs each action and owns the session, permissions and cleanup, or connects a partner environment such as Browserbase, Browser Use, Daytona or E2B. The Agents API moves the browser into OpenAI's sandbox, so a developer no longer runs the screen, but still owns the two decisions that carry the most risk: which sites the agent may open and which credentials it may use. The design keeps passwords out of the model's context, which addresses one of the most common concerns about browser agents. It also shows where OpenAI draws the line on guarantees: a function-tool confirmation is not treated as a hard control.

What to watch next

The Agents API is still in beta, and the changelog gives no date for general availability. OpenAI changed sandbox billing on 9 October so that idle time between turns is no longer charged, and added pre-warmed sandboxes the same day. A separate price for computer use is not stated in the announcement. More coverage of browser and desktop agents is collected under AI Agents.

Questions people ask

How do you enable computer use in the OpenAI Agents API?

Add the computer_use tool to the agent, set environment.type to openai_hosted and set environment.desktop.enabled to true, according to OpenAI's guide.

Does the model see the passwords users enter?

OpenAI says values submitted through the browser authentication event stay outside the agent's model input and are omitted from session history.

Does the hosted browser support passkeys?

No. The guide says sign-in supports email addresses, passwords and verification codes, but not passkeys or QR-code sign-in.

Sources

1. API changelog: computer use in the Agents API (OpenAI, 29 Sep 2026)
2. Computer use (Agents API guide) (OpenAI, 29 Sep 2026)
3. Computer use (Responses API guide) (OpenAI, 28 Oct 2026)