OpenAI’s coding-agent usage is doubling monthly, with median researchers spending more than $600 a day

Key Summary

OpenAI's coding-agent usage is doubling approximately every month since January 2026, according to Epoch AI. The median researcher's daily inference spend surpassed $600 by mid-August, more than triple the $162 recorded in July. At the 90th percentile, the heaviest users topped $7,000 per day. By mid-August, OpenAI's research organization logged 3.1 agent-workdays for every human workday. The report attributes the surge to measurable gains, citing an all-time high in experiment throughput and code changes. OpenAI aims to build an "automated research intern" by September 2026 and a more ambitious "automated AI researcher" by March 2028.